392 University of California Publications in Zoology [Vol. 20 



found within the body, and the total lack of evidence of the manner 

 of ingesting them. Later investigators have been equally at a loss to 

 account for their presence with the lack of a visible cytostome. Kent 

 (1884), however, decided that an oral aperture was present at the 

 base of the cone-like anterior portion of the body, opening into a 

 narrow oesophageal tract which extended to the digestive cavity at 

 the posterior portion of the bodj'. 



Porter (1897) was unable to confirm Kent's observations and 

 offered another solution of the problem, but with little evidence to 

 support it. He found cross-sections of the body of Trichonympha 

 which showed deep folds of the body wall, invariably containing cilia 

 in which wood particles were often entangled. He says that 



most of the eilia are probably afterwards withdrawn from the fold but the lips 

 of the fold become so closely applied to each other that the ligneous particles 

 are left behind in the depth of the fold. I believe that the lips afterwards fuse 

 together, that the walls of the infolded portion then disappear, and that the 

 food thus finally becomes entirely enclosed in the body protoplasm of the parasite. 



Other investigators have not been more successful in solving the 

 mystery of food-taking in the trichonymphids, nor has our own 

 earlier work (Kofoid and Swezy, 1919) on these flagellates solved the 

 problem. This has been due probabl.y to the extreme delicacy of 

 these organisms and the brief duration of their activities under the 

 microscope in ordinary fluids, such as physiological salt solution. We 

 have, however, been more fortunate in the study of the tricho- 

 nymphids from a colonj' of Termopsis anyusticollis (?) from Santa 

 Cruz, California. 



These termites had been living in the laboratory in a block of wood 

 in a stone crock closely covered since January, 1920. In spite of 

 the fact that no moisture had been added to the crock during that 

 time and no provision made for ventilation, the termites were found 

 in vigorous condition when removed for examination. 



For study of the living organisms the largest termites were 

 selected, those in which the abdomen seemed to be somewhat swollen. 

 The entire intestinal tract was removed and placed upon a slide which 

 had been ringed with vaseline. The wall of the intestine was carefully 

 opened and spread apart and a coverslip placed over it. Usually in 

 the largest individuals there was sufficient liquid in the intestine to 

 make the addition of physiological salt solution unnecessary, and best 

 results were obtained in such cases. Trichonympha has been kept 

 alive and in active motion in slides prepared in this manner for two 



