MELICERTAD^; PHILODINADJ3. 7 



LACINULABIA PBDUNCULATA, Hudson, sp. nov, 



The following account of this Australian species was sent to ine by Mr. Thomas 

 Whitelegge, who found it at Sydney, N. S. W, in 1886. 



" This is a very remarkable form, and a cluster might easily be mistaken for a fallen 

 flower of an acacia. The clusters are yellowish orange, a quarter of an inch in diameter, 

 having a peduncle or stalk half an inch long, formed by the united feet of the animals. 

 The union is so complete, that it was only after a great amount of patient investigation, 

 that I became certain of the peduncle's consisting of many intertwined feet. The trochal 

 disc seems to me to be intermediate in shape between that of L. socialis, and that of 

 Megalotrocha alboflavicans. The gelatinous material, in which the animals are im- 

 mersed, is well developed. This species I have found in abundance, after heavy rains, 

 in shallow pools. Its period of activity is very brief, and the winter ova, as well as the 

 ordinary ones, are soon formed in great numbers." 1 



MEGALOTEOCHA SEMI-BULLATA, Hudson, sp. nov. (PL XXXII. fig. 3). 



SP. CH. Corona f our- sided ; opaque warts two; ventral antennae tu-o small 

 setigerous tubercules ; dorsal antennae apparently absent. 



Mr. Gunson Thorpe, who found this new Megalotrocha near Brisbane, describes it 

 as forming free-swimming clusters of several Rotifera, adhering to one another by the 

 tips of their feet, but without any tubes. The corona is not round, but four-sided ; and 

 the lower portion of the foot is distinctly marked out from the rest by three confluent 

 swellings, where. the upper portion joins it, one on each side, and one on the dorsal 

 surface. Mr. Thorpe says that the animal contracts no further than the top of this 

 trifid knob. The two opaque warts are on the ventral surface, one on each shoulder. 

 and stand out prominently, above the surface of the body, when the ciliary wreath is 

 withdrawn (fig. 8 b) : the two ventral antennas lie just below the opaque warts, and the 

 eyes are on the upper edge of the ciliary wreath, between the two rows of cilia (fig. 8 a), 

 a most unusual position. The rest of the structure is normal. Mr. Thorpe has seen 

 the male, which has a squarish corona like that of the female. 2 



Length, of an individual, $ inch. Eabitat. Acclimatisation Gardens, Brisbane. 



PHILODINA MACKOSTYLA, Ehrenberg (42), (PI. XXXII. fig. 6). 



SP. CH. Body much fluted longitudinally ; frontal column long, tapering ; antenna 

 with a small, three-lobed, club-shaped, terminal joint ; eyes narrow, obliquely set ; teeth 

 three, thick ; spurs long, slender, slightly sigmoid, acute. 



Ehrenberg's specific characters are " Body white, smooth ; eyes oblong ; spurs very 

 long." But I have no doubt that this Eotifer is Mr. Gosse's P. tuberculata, the specific 

 characters of which I now give to it. Each has a long, tapering, frontal column ; very 

 long, narrow, sharp spurs ; a stout antenna, with hairs set on a trifid knob at the free 

 end ; obliquely set, narrow eyes ; and three teeth in each ramus. Each, too, has a 

 smooth white skin ; for, when tuberculata is put into clean water, it drops its floccose 

 covering, and appears free from spine or tubercle. 3 The last joint of the foot divides 



1 I am indebted to Mr. Whitelegge for some specimens preserved in spirit. The long stalk is 

 formed of intertwined mucous threads which issue from the extremity of the Lacinularice ; one pair of 

 threads from each. This is obvious in the portion of the stalk which forms the diameter of the 

 cluster; but the ribbed appearance gradually fades away towards the lower end, where the mucous 

 threads seem to have been fused together. 



2 In consequence of this discovery of Mr. Thorpe's, the characteristics of the Genus Mcgalotroclia 

 (vol. i. p. 86) will require some alteration. Instead of " trunk with four opaque warts " read " trunk 

 with opaque warts," and for "antennae absent" read "antennae absent or inconspicuous." The 

 SP. CH. of Megalotrocha alboflavicans may now be given as follows: "Opaque warts four; antennse 

 apparently absent." 



J Mr. Gosse, in one of his last notes, says " P. tuberculata has no tubercles." Mr. G. Western, who 



