NOTOMMATARffi. 45 



a species of Euplotes, and a few of a Colurus. I have since found it repeatedly in sea- 

 water from the Tay Estuary. It is active and sprightly in its manners, browsing among 

 the floccose ; frequently elongating and contracting its body, and occasionally swimming 

 in the open water. P.H.G.] 



Length, 13-^ to -fjj inch. Habitat. A marine aquarium ; tide-pools in the Firth of 

 Tay (P.H.G.). 



F. BOLTONI, Gosse, sp. nov. 

 (PI. XX. fig. 2.) 



[SP. CH. Front rondo-truncate; body fusiform ; foot-joints smoM; toes conical, 

 about half as long as the foot ; eye small. Lacustrine. 



This species I at first supposed to be Ehrenberg's F. Beinhardti, which has not yet 

 occurred to British research ; but, on mature consideration, there seem important 

 differences, which warrant my raising this to specific rank. Reinhardti is stated to be 

 T ^JJ inch in length, which is not so large as F. forficula and F. gibba ; whereas this is 

 ^ inch in length, and so is a very giant among Furcularice. Then the foot in 

 Beinhardti is half the length of the body : in Boltoni about one-fourth ; the toes in the 

 former are minute, one-fifth to one-sixth the length of the foot : in the latter rather 

 long and slender, full half the length of the whole foot and toes. Ehrenberg speaks of 

 " the great eye " as an attractive feature in his species ; but in this, the eye is, as usual, 

 minute and inconspicuous. Lastly, his species is marine, living parasitically on the 

 branching stems of the well-known polype, Laomedia geniculata ; whereas mine oc- 

 curred in a pool in the heart of England. Thus I venture to pronounce it new ; and 

 honour it with the name of that energetic microscopist, Mr. Thomas Bolton, who sent it to 

 me. It has evidently very close relation with F. Beinhardti, as is shown by the general 

 form, and especially the spindle-shaped trunk, and abruptly tapered foot. It is a true 

 Furcularia, as to its trophi, of which I had a very favourable observation ; the mallei 

 being slight and feeble, while the incus is strongly developed with wide, glassy, arched 

 rami, produced into long decurved points. 



The front, in life, is probably conical, as usual ; but in the condition in which alone 

 I have seen the species, the cone was so low that its outline was nearly straight, with a 

 minute but clear red eye-speck occupying the very centre of its edge. The mastax is of 

 the usual large dimensions, followed by a slender oesophagus, an ample stomach with 

 small oval glands, a separate intestine full of dark granulate food, an ovary with a great 

 opaque maturing egg, and what I took for a contractile vesicle. The trunk is thickest 

 at the lumbar region, and that whether viewed laterally or dorsally. Thence it 

 diminishes rapidly to a width less than that of the head, and carries a foot of three 

 joints, of which the first is contained within the trunk-walls, and the others are very 

 small and slender, followed by a pair of furcate toes, which are of a long conical shape, 

 acute, and nearly as long as the three foot-joints together. The whole foot is sometimes 

 thrown up towards the belly. 



I first became cognizant of this species in October 1885, a specimen having occurred 

 in sediment collected from a ditch in Button Park (a locality most prolific in rotiferous 

 and other microscopic life) by Mr. Bolton and sent to me. The animal was dead, but 

 recently ; so that the form was little altered, and the organs were all in situ, and readily 

 identified. I subsequently found a second rather smaller example in the same tube of 

 water, also dead ; which afforded me the advantage, always to be prized, of an additional 

 study. A sight of the living animal is still a desideratum. P.H.G.] 



Length, ^ inch to ^ inch. Habitat. A ditch near Birmingham (T.B.j. 



