82 THE EOTIFEEA. 



(E. LONGICOENIS, DttVlS. 



(PI. VII. fig. 6.) 



(Ecistes longicornis . . . Davis, Trans. Boy. Micr. Soc. vol. xv. 1867, p. 13, with figs. 



SP. CH. Antennae very long and recurved ; tube floccose, irregular. 



Mr. H. Davis found this well-marked species, in abundance, in ponds at Leytonstone, 

 Essex. It is the smallest of the tube-makers. The tube is very irregular and variable 

 in shape ; but, in most of the examples which I have met with, small and tubular at the 

 bottom, while wide and unsymmetrical towards the top. On supplying it with carmine, 

 Mr. Davis saw that the fine coloured particles accumulated in the hollow under the chin, 

 and that they were then rubbed off by the Eotiferon, and left on the top of its case. He 

 thus obtained tubes with crimson tops at least one-fourth of the length of the whole, 

 showing how the structure was gradually formed. The long antennae, curved back from 

 the ventral surface, and set wide apart, give this (Ecistes a very striking appearance. 



Length. About ^ inch. Habitat. Leytonstone, Essex (H. Davis) ; Abbot's Pond, 

 Clifton (C.T.H.) ; Woolston, Cheltenham (P.H.G) ; marsh pools, Fife and Perth (J.H., 

 P.H.G.) : partially distributed. 



CE. PILULA, Wills. 

 (PI. VII. fig. 2.) 



Mclicerta, variety No. 2 . . . Tatem, Jour. Quckctt Micr. Club, vol. i. 18G8, p. 124, 



pi. vii. figs. 3, 4. 



Mdicerta socialis (?)... Collins, Science Gossip, No. 85, 1872, p. 9, with fig. 

 Mclicerta pilula (?) . . . . Cubitt, Mon. Micr. J. vol. viii. 1872, p. 5, pi. xxiv. figs. 2-4. 

 CEcistes pilula .... Wills, Midland Naturalist, vol. i. 1878, pp. 302, 317, 



pi. v. figs. 3, 4. 



SP. CH. Antennae long ; tube formed of fcecal pellets. 



The first certain notice of this Eotifer is by Mr. Tatem (loc. cit.). He gave two ex- 

 cellent and characteristic drawings of it ; saying merely that it was a two-lobed variety of 

 Melicerta ringens, without a ciliated cup, and inhabiting a " gelatinous sheath " with ad- 

 herent fsecal pellets. Its broadly oval ! corona, however, and the minuteness of the 

 dorsal gap in the ciliary wreath, clearly place it in the genus (Ecistes. 



As in Melicerta Janus, the intestine is large and densely ciliated ; and nearly always 

 contains an oval pellet in the course of construction. Mr. Wills (loc. cit.) describes how 

 the animal deposits its completed pellet. He says that it is ejected between the body 

 and the tube, and then caught by the lower margin of the corona. Here it is retained 

 for a few seconds, as if the creature wished to make sure of a proper hold, and it is then, 

 by a sudden retracting of the body, dabbed down on the margin of the tube. The 

 pellets are deposited at irregular times, and the majority of them are so ejected as to 

 be whirled quite away by the coronal currents. Those that form the tube are laid in 

 transverse rings round the body so as to cut the ring obliquely (fig. 2d). The tubes are 

 generally neat, gradually widening to the top, but I have met with some in which the 

 pellets seemed to have been deposited in a most irregular fashion (fig. 2a). These 

 tubes, however, had probably suffered from some accident. The eyes are visible in the 

 half-grown animal. 



Length. Scotch specimens up to -,V inch. Habitat. Sandhurst, Berks (Collins) ; 

 Sutton Park, Birmingham (A. W. Wills) ; Snaresbrook, the tube of unusually large 

 pellets (P.H.G.) : marsh-pools, Fife and Perth (J.H.) : not common. 



1 Mr. Cubitt's and Dr. Collins's drawings make the corona so like that of a Limnias that I am by 

 no means sure that thoy are describing CEcistes pilula. 



