ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 37 



maniana. Hitherto only two of these " most elusive organisms in 

 natural history " have been known. The new form has sharp spinous 

 processes in contrast to the trumpet-shaped and club-shaped processes of 

 the two others. It is very minute, 10 fi, i.e. about one-quarter the size 

 of R. claviger. It was obtained on the ' Discovery's ' outward voyage to 

 the Cape. 



Alleged Senile Degeneration in Protozoa.* — P. Enriques has 

 made prolonged observations on successive generations of Glaucoma 

 scintillans, Stylonichia pustulata, and Vorticella nebulifera, and has not 

 found any proof of senile degeneration, though degenerative phenomena 

 may be brought about through toxic bacterial influences. In the oase 

 of an isolated Glaucoma scintillans he observed 688 generations, during 

 which there was no conjugation and no degeneration. 



Alleged Senile Degeneration in Infusorians.f — P. Enriques has 

 made observations on Stylonichia pustulata and Vorticella nebulifera, and 

 comes to the conclusion that the alleged senile degeneration after pro- 

 longed fission is illusory. In healthy conditions there was no degenera- 

 tion after about 700 generations by fission without conjugation. 

 Experiment showed that bacterial influence may induce degenerative 

 phenomena in young forms, and it is suggested that this occurred in the 

 famous experiments of Maupas. 



New Flagellate Parasites 4 — Anna Foa describes two new Flagel- 

 lata from Chilian Termites, Calonympha grassii g. et sp. n., and 

 Devescovina striata g. et sp. n. The former is a most remarkable 

 animal, oval in form, with a zone of granules and long flagella at 

 the naiTOwer pole, further down a zone of long flagella, granules, and 

 nuclei, and towards the broad pole a zone with remains of food. 

 In the second zone each flagellum is continued into a nucleated 

 ampulla with a granule at the entrance of the flagellum, and with a 

 delicate filament continued inwards to join with other filaments in 

 forming a sort of axial bundle. The second form is pear-shaped, longi- 

 tudinally striated, with three fine anterior flagella, a hyaline axial rod, 

 an anterior nucleus, and several features suggestive of Jwnia. 



New Flagellate Parasite of Bombyx mori.§ — C. Levaditi describes 

 Herpetomonas bombycis sp. n. Its centrosome lies posteriorly to the 

 nucleus, and there is a cytoplasmic prolongation of the flagellum, 

 recalling the undulating membrane of trypanosomes, and a possible 

 relationship is suggested. The hosts were suffering from pebrine and 

 an undetermined microbic infection, so that the pathogenic role, if any, 

 of H. bombycis could not be determined. 



Flagellate Parasites.|| — S. Prowazek has, with the aid of intra 

 vitam staining with neutral red and other reagents, successfully studied 

 developmental stages in three parasites from the rectum and cloaca of 



* Atti R. Accad. Lincei Roma, xiv. (1905) pp. 351-7. 

 t Tom. cit., pp. 390-5 (3 figs.). J Tom. cit., pp. 542-6 (3 figs.). 



§ Comptes Rendus, cxli. (1905) pp. 631-4. 



|| Arbeit. Kaiserl. Ges. Berlin, xxi. (1904) ; see Gentralbl. Bakt. Parasit., xxxvi. 

 905) pp. 645-6. 



