48 THE ROTIFERA. 



lens of crimson pigment, and at the frontal end of the tube, one on each side of it, are 

 two small crimson globules. 1 All three are beautifully rich and distinct, even by trans- 

 mitted light. It is indubitably Werneck's Eosphora aurita. The jaws are quite of the 

 Diglena type, but the mallei are stouter, as in Notommata : the points are often pro- 

 truded. A curious feature is that the capacious stomach juts up in two long horns, as 

 high as the top of the mastax, distinct from the gastric glands. An ovary and a con- 

 tractile bladder, both ample, help to fill the cavity ; and the body terminates dorsally in 

 a broad triangular tail, which projects far above the foot, with the cloaca between. On 

 the occipital edge is a minute antennal tube and a bristled wart on each side of it. 

 This triple arrangement is peculiar. The manners are usually sluggish. 2 P.H.G.] 



Length, -j--^ to T J inch. Habitat. Greenwich Park ; Hampstead Heath ; Birming- 

 ham : pools ; not rare (P.H.G.). 



Genus DIGLENA, Ehrcnbcrg. 



[GEN. CH. Body sub-cylindric, but very versatile in outline, often swelling behind 

 and tapering to the head ; eyes two, minute, situated near the edge of the front ; foot 

 furcate; trophi forcipate, generally very protrusile. 



This genus, while Notommatoid in form, has a certain aspect of vigour and intensity 

 of function peculiar to it. Though one or two assigned species are massive, the majority 

 are slender, lithe and energetic ; the taper and elongate anterior parts habitually thrown 

 above the general line of progression, in the manner of some lepidopterous and dipterous 

 larvae, as if eagerly exploring. The form of the trophi, though on the Notommatous 

 pattern, is very predaceous ; and the sharp, formidably-armed rami of the incus can be, 

 and frequently are, thrust far beyond the limits of the head, and forcibly snapped. 

 The front, in most of the species, is furnished with a hooked proboscis. The furcate 

 toes are, in general, long and sharp, sometimes sickle-shaped. 



Of the eight species included in the genus by Prof. Ehrenberg, lacustris, conura, 

 and capitata have not been recognised in Britain ; aurita is an Eosphora, and has been 

 just described. To the remaining four, seven species are now added. P.H.G.] 



D. GEANDIS, Ehrenberg. 

 (PL XIX. fig. 6.) 



[SP. CH. Body massive, sub-cylindric; head rounded, with a frontal proboscis ; 

 face nearly prone; a tuberculiform tail; foot large, bulbous; toes straight, parallel- 

 edged, abruptly pointed. 



Of this imposing species my knowledge for many years was limited to a specimen 

 which I found in September 1851, already dead, in a dyke at Maidenhead. The trophi 

 were beautifully distinct. Their structure was nearly the same as in D. forcipata, but 

 the bristle-like teeth that line each side of the incus were much more conspicuous, and 

 apparently larger ; arranged in double rows. In August 1885, examining an aquatic 

 moss growing in a glass reservoir in my study, I found, first one, and then another, 

 of the same species, alive and active. The agreement in detail with my dead original 

 was exact. Two very minute eyes, nearly close together, are at the front, whence pro- 

 jects a small hooked proboscis ; and below this the ciliate face is very prone. The 



1 Eckstein says that these are connected with the great cervical eye by nerve-threads. 



2 Eyferth (On the Lowest Forms of Life, 1878) says that Triophthalmus of Ehrenberg is but the 

 young condition of Eosphora ; and that, even in the egg, are seen two dark specks, near the eye, which 

 subsequently disappear. But Eckstein (Sieb. u. Koll. 1883) holds this conclusion doubtful, till the 

 entire development from the egg has been watched. He confronts the points of consimilarity with 

 those of dissimilarity in two instructive tables. 



