UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS 



(N 



ZOOLOGY 



Vol. 20, No. 17, pp. 391-400, 14 figures in text August 16, 1923 



THE PSEUDOPODTAL METHOD OF FEEDING 



BY TRICHONYMPHID FLAGELLATES 



PARASITIC IN WOOD-EATING 



TERMITES 



BY 



OLIVE SWEZY 



In the food-taking habits of the Protozoa we find as great a 

 diversity as is foi;nd in other features of their life history or 

 morphology. In those groups having a holozoic type of feeding, two 

 general methods of taking food particles into the body may be dis- 

 tinguished. In the forms showing a definite polarity food is taken 

 in at or near the anterior or head end, in common with the method 

 general in the Metazoa. When a distinct pellicle or a structurally 

 differentiated ectoplasm is present, as in the flagellates and ciliates, 

 an oral aperture or cytostome is generally found, at least in those 

 forms M'hich ingest solid food particles. 



In the amoeboid type of protozoan, with little or no evidences 

 of polarity, food may be taken in at any point in the body. This 

 method of feeding is the common one among the Rhizopoda, the 

 former one being typical of the Ciliata and Flagellata. 



In the remarkable and highly complex group of flagellates inhabit- 

 ing the digestive tract of the termites, at least two genera of flagellates, 

 Trichonympha and Leidyopsis, are found which combine the type of 

 feeding of the Rhizopoda with the highly differentiated ectoplasm 

 characteristic of the higher Ciliata. This fact, combined with the 

 very striking polarity exhibited by these flagellates, distinguishes 

 this group from most, if not all other Protozoa in its food habits. 



In the first published description of the trichonymphids by Leidy, 

 in 1881, mention is made of the great number of solid food particles 



