72 THE EOTIFEEA. 



the little visitor with perfect composure, and continued to feed as if quite undisturbed 

 by its presence." The same observer broke up about fifty tubes of M. ringens in 

 December, and procured ten specimens of the same small Eotiferon from them : in one 

 case there were four males in a single tube. 



In the above account, the presence of a forked foot, and of a mastax and tropin, and 

 the fact that the latter were seen to be protruded from the corona, would naturally lead 

 one to say that the Eotiferon recorded was rather some one of the Notommatadce than a 

 male Melicerta. On the other hand, its unresented action towards the female was pre- 

 cisely that noticed by Mr. Gosse in the case of M. conifcra ; and the latter observer has 

 also seen troplii in a very similar creature with similar habits, which he believes to be 

 the male of Limnias ceratophylli. 1 



Length. Varies greatly. Average length of an adult tube about 3 \, inch. Specimens 

 twice the size are common hi Scotch lakes. Those in clusters, in Philadelphia, U.S., 

 extend even to J, inch. Habitat. Very common on water plants, in standing or slowly 

 running water. 



M. conifeea, Hudson, sp. nov. 

 (PL V. fig. 2.) 



SP. CII. Lobes, when expanded, of the same width as the tube ; chin long and 

 pointed ; pellet a pointed cylinder. 



This Melicerta is somewhat larger, and very much rarer, than M. ringens. It was 

 discovered by Mr. J. Hood in 1876 in a pool on Tent's Muir. He found it again in pro- 

 fusion in the summer, autumn, and even in some of the winter months of 187'J, the 

 weed being quite matted with it. The points of difference between it and M. ringens 

 are persistent, though slight ; but the difference in their tubes is striking. This is due 

 to the shape and quality of the pellets. They are much longer in proportion to their 

 diameter than those of M. ringens, so as to resemble a conical rifle bullet ; and they 

 are more transparent, and of a clear golden yellow. In consequence of their length the 

 tube is a stout one, and its thickness is shown by a stripe on each side of a different colour 

 from the centre of the tube, and darker or lighter according to the illumination used. 



The fully expanded lobes are almost exactly as wide as the top of the tube, but in 

 M ringens they exceed it in the proportion of ten to nine. The chin, too, differs from 

 that of the common species ; it is longer and more pointed. 



The Male. — [In water from Epping Forest sent to me by Mr. Henry Davis, 1 found 

 Melicerta comfera, projected and rotating. Emerging from the mouth of the tube, about 

 three-fourths extruded, was a male (PI. D. fig. 6) about as long as the diameter of the 

 tube, playing, as it were, with the disk of the female. Two irregular shaped opaque 

 masses were seen in it far apart from each other. I looked away for a minute to delineate 

 what I had seen, and he was gone : but I presently found him slowly swimming around, 

 which he continued to do, turning on his long axis as he went. There was now only one 

 opaque mass, the hinder ; and this was in contact (whether in connection I do not know) 

 with a large ovate clear bladder, perhaps an air vesicle. The head is oblique, the face 

 ciliated, the occiput, angled and projecting. The foot is a little knob of flesh. I could 

 see no internal organs, nothing but the clear, colourless tissue, full of corrugations 

 throughout. P.H.G.] 



Length. About T V inch ; tube, -^ inch. Habitat. Marsh pools, Fife and Perth 

 (J.H.) ; abundant in a pool at Snaresbrook (P.H.G.) : rare. 



M. tubicolabia, Ehrenberg. 



(PI. V. fig. 3.) 

 Tubicolaria Naias . . . Ehrenberg, Die Infus. 1838, p. 399, Taf. xlv. fig. 1. 



,, . Leydig, Ueb. d. Ban. d. Hdderth. 1851, p. 14, Taf. i. fig. 7. 



1 See p. 76. 



