154 Miscellaneous. 



Freia ampulla, the Flasic- Animalcule. 

 By Prof. Karl Mobius. 



One of the largest and finest Infusoria of Kiel Bay is Freia 

 ampulla, 0. E. Miill., the flask-animalcule. When full-grown and 

 completely extended it is nearly 1 millim. long and O'l millim. 

 broad, so that it is perceptible even with the naked eye. It resides 

 in a flask-shaped capsule with a convex bottom, a short neck, and 

 the margins of the aperture bent outward. This capsule is trans- 

 parent, brownish yellow or somewhat bluish, and consists of a chiti- 

 nous substance which is insoluble in potash. The greater part of 

 the extended animal is cylindrical. Its posterior extremity is 

 attached to the bottom of the capsule, while the anterior portion 

 can reach far beyond the aperture of the capsule, and is divided 

 into two lanceolate lobes, the bases of which are united to form a 

 half-funnel, in the bottom of which the mouth is situated. The 

 edge of these funnel-lobes is covered with combs of cilia or pecti- 

 nellse, the united bases of which cross the edge-line nearly at right 

 angles. The pectinella-fringes of the two funnel-lobes run spirally 

 down the funnel as far as the mouth. 



When the animalcule has extended itself and separated the 

 funnel-lobes it sets a portion or the whole of its pectinellae in motion, 

 and thus produces currents which carry smaller Infusoria, unicellular 

 Alg£e, or granules of indigo or carmine mixed with the water into 

 the cavity of the mouth. When the latter is filled it opens inwards 

 and allows the food, in the form of a rounded ball, to pass into the 

 oesophagus, which may bo recognized as a longitudinally-striated 

 canal behind the mouth, in the middle of the fore part of the body. 

 From the oesophagus the food-balls pass into the soft endosarc of the 

 middle and hind body ; many food-balls are also pushed up forward 

 even into the endosarc of the funnel-lobes. The indigestible parts 

 are expelled at the base of the left funnel-lobe. Several fsecal balls 

 usually collect to the left of and somewhat behind the bottom of 

 the funnel, in a canal, a sort of rectum, and escape quickly one after 

 the other. 



The soft endosarc is covered with a firmer layer of ectosarc, 

 which consists of long streaks beset with greenish- brown granules. 

 These streaks act like muscular fibres. When they contract, the 

 hind-body becomes thicker and applied to the bottom of the capsule, 

 while the fore-body with the funnel-lobes folded together passes down 

 below the aperture of the capsule. Freia ampulla usually retracts 

 itself quickly into the capsule, and only slowly extends itseK again. 



In the middle and hinder parts of the body there is a light neck- 

 laCe-like cord, which is coloured red by solution of carmine. This 

 i^ the nucleus. 



In many capsules there is, at the side of the hind-body of a per- 

 fectly developed individual, a young animal without funnel-lobes, 

 nearly uniformly rounded off anteriorly and posteriorly, and pro- 

 duced by fission from the body of the parent animal. This, when it 



