Miscellaneous. 193 



ventral arms 2-50, to edge of mantle beneath 1*20, to centre of eye 

 1-55; breadth of body 1-25, of head across eyes 1-20, of arms at 

 base -22 ; diameter of largest suckers "10 ; length of arms beyond 

 web (1st pair) 3-00, 2nd pair. 3*25, 3rd pair 2-80, 4th pair 2-75. 



Taken by Capt. John Mclnnis and crew of the schooner ' M. H. 

 Perkins,' from the western part of Le Have Bank, off Nova Scotia, 

 in 120 fathoms. Presented to the U.S. Fish Commission, Oct. 

 1879. « 



This species is easily distinguished from 0. Bairdii, by its more 

 elongated body, its much longer and more tapered arms, with 

 shorter web, by the absence of the large, rough, pointed papilla or 

 cirrus above the eyes, and by its general smoothness. The white 

 colour of the underside of the neck, siphon, and mantle-border also 

 appears to be characteristic. — Amer. Joxrn. >ScL and Arts, December 

 1S79. 



On Amoeba Blattie. 



Prof. Leidy remarked that while perusing the communication of 

 Prof. Biitschli on Flagellata and other related organisms (" Bei- 

 trage zur Kenntniss der FlagellateU und einiger verwandten Orga- 

 nismen ") in the Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftliche Zoologie, 1878, 

 p. 205, his attention was especially attracted by the description of 

 a parasitic amoeboid living in the intestine of the cockroach (Blatta 

 orientalis. It recalled to mind that he had observed the same 

 creature a number of years ago, in association with the ciliated 

 iufusorian he had described as Nyctotherus ovalis. At that time he 

 had viewed it as a young form of a Gregarina, and had intended 

 giving it and other parasites of the cockroach more critical exami- 

 nation, but failed to do so. The parasitic amoeboid which Prof. 

 Biitschli describes under the name of Amoeba Blattas is particularly 

 interesting on account of its habits and its somewhat peculiar cha- 

 racter. Prof. Leidy had recently examined some cockroaches, and 

 found abundance of the amoeboid in association with Nyctotherus 

 ovalis, Lophomonas blattaram, Oxyurus yracilis, and O. aptpendica- 

 latus, and an algoid plant. 



The amoeboid, he thought, was worthy of generic distinction 

 from the true Amoeba, holding a position between this and Prota- 

 mceba. From the former it differed in the absence of a contractile 

 vesicle and commonly also of vacuoles, and in the want of differen- 

 tiation of endosarc and ectosarc ; and from the latter in the posses- 

 sion of a well-defined nucleus. He proposed for it the following 

 name with distinctive characters :- — 



ENDAMOiBA. 



General character and habit of Amoeba ; composed of colourless, 

 homogeneous, granular protoplasm, in the ordinary normal active 

 condition without distinction of ectosarc and endosarc ; with a 

 distinct nucleolated nucleus, but ordinarily with neither contractile 

 vesicle nor vacuoles. 



