NOTOMMATAD.E. 31 



Tliere are no ciliated tnfts, in tlio corona, longer than the rest ; there is a blunt dorsal 

 antenna protected by the hood ; and the vibratile tags are sufficiently inconspicuous to 

 have escaped observation. The creature is fierce and active : if it strikes an object with 

 its jaws, it hangs on and sucks like a weasel, even when whirled round by its prey. 

 Infusoria are often attacked by it, and will tear themselves out of its grasp, leaving pieces 

 of their bodies in its jaws. Once Mr. Milne saw it make so desperate a snatch at its 

 prey, that it locked its rami together into a straight line ; and, unable to unlock them, 

 died of its fatal greediness. It often swallowed a Glaucoma ; and on one occasion devoured 

 no fewer than six (or half its own bulk) in less than an hour. All of these were digested 

 in the large oesophagus (see D. uncinata), and in an hour and a half there was nothing 

 left but a pulpy mass, which had not yet reached the true stomach. 



Mr. Milne has also seen and described the male. It is a much smaller animal than 

 the female, more elongated, and with a more developed hood. Its structure is normal.' 



Length, (of female) ^w *o T4iy i^^ch ; (of male) -p^ inch. 



D. ANDESiNA, D. Di.\DEMA, D. LONGiPES, D. MACEODONTA, ScJuuarJa (135) ; see note 

 1, SupS p. 8. 



D. GRANULARis, Weisse (41) =D. catcllina. 



DiSTEMMA FOBFicuLA, Ehrcnhcrg (42), (PI. XXXIII. fig. 19). 



SP. CH. Body cylindrically conical; toes stout, re-curvcd, toothed at the base; 

 eyes red. 



Ehrenberg says but little of this Rotiferon. He thinks it closely related to Furcidarla 

 forficula ; and notices that the two red eyes are situated at the end of a long cylindrical 

 brain . 



Length, ^h^ inch. Habitat. Near Berlin (Ehr.). 



DiSTEMMA PLATYCErs, Gosse (171), (PI. XXXI. fig. 25). 



[SP. CH. Body subfusiform ; belly flat ; head broadly truncate ; eyes tivo colour- 

 less globules, remote, occijntal ; foot rounded ; toes taper, acute, slightly decurved. 



Though not unlike certain conditions of Diglena suilla and permollis, this is distin- 

 guished by its two large colourless eyes ; and by the fact that while the trophi are of the 

 usual calliper form, the mallei are (or seem) attached to the bases rather than to the 

 ends of the circular rami ; while the fulcrum is nearly as long as the mallei. An incon- 

 spicuous hooked proboscis is present, which appears retractile. The broad face is of 

 hyaline delicacy, free from corrugations and marks, as if clear gelatinous flesh, and this 

 well defined from surrounding tissues, in all aspects. 



Yomig specimens are very restless and mobile, but an adult was of slow movement. 

 Five or six examples occurred to me in water from a tide-pool near Carnoustie, in For- 

 farshire. In the one the jaws were about half extruded from the face, and (as if by 

 paralysis) could not be retracted, or even moved ; an accident, the occurrence of which 

 I have observed on repeated occasions, in predatory Rotifera. The species was numerous 

 also in a ditch near Goodrington, South Devon. 



Length, -^^^f inch. Habitat. Marine and lacustrine. P.H.G.] 



D. SETiGEEUM, Ehrenberg (42), (PI. XXXIII. fig. 18 1. SP. CH. " Body ovato-oblong ; 

 toes decurved, seta-like; eyes red." Mr. Gosse points out (vol. ii. p. 54) that this 

 liotiferon belongs to the Battulidce ; and possibly (vol. ii. p. 70), in spite of the two 

 cervical eyes assigned to it by Ehrenberg, to his new genus Cmlopus. Ehrenberg gives 

 no account of its internal structure, and says hardly anything about it, except that one 



' The whole of the above account of these two species is derived from Mr. Mihie's able and 

 exhaustive paper (toe. cit.). 



