52 THE ROTIFEEA. 



scribable shapes (of wliicl. fig. Hb may serve as an example), witli various sharp folds and 

 angles. Yet it may be said to have a characteristic form, which is sub-parallel-sided 

 viewed dorsally ; but which, viewed laterally, is narrow for the anterior third, where it 

 rises abruptly to nearly double the height. This is generally maintained to the end of 

 the trunk, where it descends with even a sharper angle to give emission to a thick foot, 

 carrying two long, straight, slender, acute toes. The front is unusually wide and 

 truncate, viewed dorsally ; but laterally, it is seen to project into the usual fleshy hoolc, 

 which is probably sensitive, and used to collect and test food. The ciliated face is 

 almost prone; behind this is an ample mastax with jaws of the. normal piiicer- form. 

 The viscera present nothing noteworthy. The whole animal is of crystalline clearness ; 

 and is devoid of colour, so far as I have seen. The eyes, too, if eyes they are, are two 

 colourless globules of considerable size and of somewhat irregular outline, placed wider 

 apart than in Ehrenberg's figure, at the very front. The toes are long, tapering regularly 

 to produced acute points, but slender throughout and quite straight, whereby they differ 

 from those of clastopis. They are frequently thrown forward suddenly to more than a 

 right-angle. (See fig. 8 and Ehrenberg's fig. 4.) The lumbar fold of skin is often strong 

 and sharp ; but there is no projection really answering to a tail ; and the specific name 

 is a misnomer. I examined two specimens in September 1885, from water which had 

 stood on my table about four weeks, originally from Woolston Pond. — P.H.G.] 



Length. About -jij inch. Habitat. Woolston (P.H.G.) ; Sandhurst (Collins). 



D. PEHMOLLIS, GOSSC, Sp. IIOV. 



IPI. XlX.fig. 11.) 



[SP. CH. Body extremely soft and versatile 171 form, sicollcn in the middle, broad 

 and truncate in front, tapering behind to a thick and long foot ; toes tioo furcate, slen- 

 der, acute. 



I am conscious that the above is an unsatisfactory diagnosis of what I am sure is a 

 distinct form. In a tube dipped from a fresh-water loch by Mr. Hood, containing a few 

 leaves of milfoil thickly studded with Rhizota, I found a Notommatoid creature, cer- 

 tainly new to me, and apparently undescribed. Its most salient character was its exces- 

 sive softness, as if it had no skin at all, but were a lump of mere jelly, yet intensely active 

 and restless, swelling and contracting, lengthening and shortening, twisting and infold- 

 ing, without the slightest intermission, for more than two days while under observation. 

 All this made it quite unlike any other Rotiferon I had ever met with. The slender 

 toes, at the end of a rather large foot, are very mobile, ever thrown about to their ut- 

 most, or suddenly brought point to point with a snap ; in this specimen they had the 

 remarkable peculiarity of what looked like a minute terminal joint, like a separate claw, 

 which, however, was not apparent in other examples. The front is widely truncate, 

 composed of many globose transparent cells ; from the midst of which i^rojects the usual 

 soft triangular proboscis. The ciliated face below this is prone, whence frequently the 

 trophi, — an incus with circularly forcipate rami, worked by long mallei, — are protruded 

 with energetic snaps and snatches. Below the mastax is a vast alimentary canal, con- 

 sisting of nucleate cells ; an ovary of embryonic vesicles occup) ing the venter. I could 

 not detect any eye-spots ; but a rather short brain filled the occiput. 



I subsequently obtained other examples from the same quarter. In one was a large 

 contractile vesicle which I saw discharged, but I could not time its period. The cor- 

 ners of the front, when rotating, have almost the appearance of auricles. — P.H.G.] 



Length. About -^l^ inch. Habitat. A pool near Dundee (P.II.G.) 



D. CLASTOPIS, Gossc, sp. nov. 

 (PI. XIX. fig. 5.) 

 [SP. CH. "Boiy cylindric, long, slender ; front rounded, if ithout visible hook ; foot 

 long, slender, with tico long deciirved toes. 



