M. E. Penard's Notes on some lleliozoa. 153 



and in some individual Vampyrella it appears that Zopf has 

 found a true nucleus, But Hackel's classification still retains 

 a great systematic value. As regards the Vampyrelhe, I do 

 not know whether the authors who have made them Heliozoa 

 (e. g. Biitschli, in his fine work on the Protozoa) have not 

 attached too great importance to mere external resemblances. 



Vampyrella sptrogyrce, in its normal state, is a small Hhi- 

 zopod of about 40 micromillimetres in diameter, spherical, of 

 a fine brick-red colour, devoid of nucleus and contractile 

 vesicle, but containing in its ectosarc a great quantity of 

 small non-contractile vacuoles. From the exterior radiate a 

 considerable number of pseudopodia, some long and covered 

 with granules, the others very short and as if terminated by 

 pins' heads, the last appearance being due to the fact that, 

 especially when the animal is progressing, very small hyaline 

 spheres run constantly over these pseudopodia, seeming posi- 

 tively to be thrown out by the animal and to fall again imme- 

 diately at the very point from which they were expelled. 

 The phenomenon of these little balls springing up on all sides 

 is so extraordinary that when I had this species under my 

 eyes for the first time I thought I could not do better than 

 name it provisionally the u Vampirelle jonglease-^' 1 subse- 

 quently I found that it had been described and even bore two 

 names — Vampyrella lateritia in consequence of its colour, and 

 Vampyrella spirogyra}, after the plant from which it prefers to 

 obtain its nourishment. 



It is upon the manner in which this species acts in order to 

 empty the cells of the Spirogyrce that I wish to say a few 

 words here ; in fact my observations have led me to an 

 explanation different from that usually given. The Vampy- 

 rella is said to pierce a hole in a cell of Spirogyra and to 

 introduce into it a pseudopodium, the business of which is to 

 search the contents of the cell. For my part this is how I 

 can describe the phenomenon which I have observed 

 repeatedly, always arriving at the same conclusions : — The 

 Vampyrella attaches itself to a cell of Spirogyra, retracts its 

 pseudopodia, except a few by which it adheres to the Alga, 

 and then moulds itself to the cell upon a portion of its sur- 

 face, and becomes motionless. For a moment nothing takes 

 place ; then we see the attached zone rise up into an arch in 

 the interior, the margins remaining firmly attached and formed 

 into a ring ; the arch gradually rises, and suddenly the wall 

 of the Alga bursts, the cell-juice of the Spirogyra passes in 

 a violent stream into the Vampyrella ; the greyish plasma of 

 the cell passes in its turn more slowly, with the green chro- 

 matophore, which is seen to glide in a mass ; the cell is com- 



