58 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [March, 



the cap is perfectly transparent, it may well be that the view into the 

 tube is only through the hyaline cap. Sucli of the parasites illustrated 

 in Leidy's paper as have been reproduced in Kent's work have no such 

 mouth parts as are observable in the animalcules which infested a large 

 proportion of the white ants examined, and there are other differences. 

 I nevertheless express myself provisionally as to these organs being 

 mouth parts, because I have never seen food particles pass into the 

 mouth, nor through the pharyngeal tube, nor have I detected them in 

 its immediate neighborhood ; indeed, the dimensions of some of the 

 particles have been such as to preclude the possibility of their having 

 passed down the tube, unless it be dilatable. From the identity of the 

 food particles in the parasite with those in the intestinal organs of the 

 termite, we must infer with Leidy that an oral aperture exists. I have 

 paid some attention to the point, because it would be interesting to as- 

 certain how the abundance of ingested food in the animalcule gains 

 admission into its body. I have often observed the infusorian spinning 

 rapidly on its longer axis without making, or even apparently attempt- 

 ing to make, progress forwards. Its revolving motion on these occa- 

 sions has been too rapid to admit of my determining whether or not it 

 was feeding. Again, in swimming through the semi-digested food of 

 the termite, the parasite often assumes a h^licoidal form at its anterior 

 extremity, similar to the form observed by Professor Leidy in T7-ico- 

 nvmpha agilis. Tentatively, I incline to the belief that on one or 

 other, or it may be even both, of these occasions the animalcule is tak- 

 inof in food. In two cases I have observed animalcules bearing two 

 tubes terminating in a single cap. Some idea of the variety of forms 

 assumed by the parasites maybe gained by comparing the different fig- 

 ures in the drawings before you. 



Associated with the animalcule I have just described is another 

 smaller and rarer infusorian. It entirely lacks the mouth parts to which 

 I have called attention, though it also is not identifiable with any of the 

 figures in Kent's "■' Infusoria." The cross-markings are best seen when 

 the objective is focused for the central axis of the body, and the ap- 

 pearance is due to the parallel spirals on opposite sides of the body 

 being in view together. This is obvious if a higher power giving, say, 

 Soo diameters, is used. Whether or not this form differs specifically 

 from the capped animalcule I am unable to say. Its shape is less vari- 

 able. The cilia at its posterior extremity are slightly longer than those 

 distributed over the rest of the body ; and though the ciliation at the 

 anterior end is directed forwards, it does not assume the appearance of 

 the ciliary wreath or collar observable in the capped animalcule. 



I endeavored to determine the portion of the intestinal tract which 

 is the habitat of these parasites, and my observations so far lead me to 

 consider that they are restricted to the ileum and colon of the white ant. 

 I have not yet observed them either in the esophagus, or in the pro- 

 ventriculus (gizzard), or in the chylific ventricle (true stomach). 



Having found these infusorian parasites rather widely distributed 

 among our local white ants, though they are by no means universal, I 

 wrote to one of our Mofussil members, Mr. T. M. Francis, of Dur- 

 bungah, who very kindly brought me down a box full of Behar ter- 

 mites. I examined dozens of these during the last vacation, and though 

 I dare not venture to aflirm that the Behar white ant is free from the 



