54 THE KOTIFEKA. 



well-marked separation between the body and foot, the latter looking as if it possessed 

 only half the width of the body, at the line of junction. 



F. ambigua was discovered by Mr. J. Hood in May 1881 on a leaf of Sphagnum, in a 

 mossy pool on Tent's Muir, Fife. Its habits are the reverse of those of F. longicaudata. 

 It selects for its post the axil of a plant, or the under surface of a leaf, especially of a well- 

 curled one ; so that it is difficult to find a specimen that can be easily studied from 

 various points of view. Thus placed as it were in ambush, the burly Floscule draws, 

 with its powerful ciliary wreath, all kinds of organisms into its coronal cup. Nothing 

 seems to come amiss to it, and its appetite never fails. Mr Hood has seen it devour the 

 young of OEcistes pilula, and of (E. umbella ; as well as other free swimming Eotifera, 

 along with all kinds of Infusoria ; so that, to use his own vigorous language, "it would eat 

 its own weight in three hours." The same observer has twice seen the male hatched 

 from the egg laid in the tube ; and noticed the motion of its spermatozoa in the sperm- 

 sac, 



Length. From ^ to / - inch. Habitat. Lochs and marsh pools ; Forfar, Fife, 

 Perth (J.H.) ; near Birmingham (T.B.) ; Woolstonpond (P.H.G.) : sometimes abundant. 



F. ALGICOLA, Hudson, sp. nov. 

 (PI. I. fig. 8 ; PI. II. fig. 1.) 



SP. CH. Very small; corona precisely that of F. ambigua, but ornamented icitli dots 

 arranged in symmetrical patterns ; tube, if present, undistinguishable. 



This pretty little Rotiferon is very like F. ambigua, differing but little from it except 

 in its ornamented corona, small size, and strange dwelling-place. Its coronal cup is 

 ornamented on the outside with minute dots, arranged in a symmetrical pattern, as 

 shown in PI. II. figs. \a, \b. It makes its home in a parasitic growth (Gloiotrichia 

 pisum l ] on the stems of water plants. Possibly it may in this way avoid the necessity 

 of making a tube, as the parasitical sphere that it lives in seems to consist chiefly 

 of a kind of grey mucus ; but I could not be certain whether it had a tube or not : Mr. 

 Gosse searched with great care, but could see none. 



This Rotiferon was found first by Mr. J. Hood in 1882, at Rosemont Loch, Blairgowrie. 

 It was then very abundant. 



Length, -J s inch. Habitat. Lochs, Perth (J.H.) : not common. 



F. TRILOBATA, CollillS. 

 (PI. II. fig. G.) 



Floscularia trilobata . . . Collins, Science <7ossy>, Jan. 1872, p. 0, with fig. 

 Floscularia trifolium . . . Hudson, J. Eoy. Micr. Soc. 2 Ser. vol. i. 1881, p. 4, pi. ii. 



SP. CH. Lobes three, large, broadly curved, separated by very deep and similarly 

 curved depressions : dorsal lobe rather the largest; setse forming a continuous double 

 fringe round the entire circumference of the corona ; the outer row arranged like those of 

 F. campanulata ; the inner row short, slightly curved, aud arranged like cilia. 



This large and elegant Floscule was discovered by Dr. F. Collins in 1865, in a small 

 pool near Sandhurst, Berks ; and he published a short account of it, with a figure (loc. 

 cit.} in 1872. It was afterwards found by Mr. J. Hood, in Loch Lundie, near Dundee, 

 in 1880 ; and I published a description of it (loc. cit.} naming it F. trifolium, as I had 

 considerable doubt of its really being Dr. Collins' species. I have since seen the 

 description and figures which Dr. Collins sent, with some live specimens, to Mr. Gosse 

 in 1865 ; and I have now no doubt that F. trifolium arid F. trilobata are the same. 



1 Kindly identified by Dr. Cooke in a letter to Mr. Gosse. 



