Guascorr—A List of some of the Rotifera of Ireland. 81 
truncate. A small but clearly-defined brain depends from the 
margin, bearing a tiny red eye-speck a little below the middle. 
The trophi, situated close to the disc, are short, and describe a 
square outline. A short fulerum supports two stout, solid-looking 
rami, upon which the unci appear to be soldered; the manubria 
are longer than the fulcrum, and curl inward at the base; their 
action is slow and deliberate. From either side of the upper part 
- of the head a tiny granulated bag is suspended by a thread; these 
may be the salivary glands, but their mode of attachment is pecu- 
liar; delicate muscular bands are visible running down close to 
the body-wall, to which they are fastened at intervals by slender 
threads. ‘The vascular system is represented by lateral canals of 
unequal dimensions, and apparently without tags; they curl in- 
ward at about two-thirds distance from the head to the small con- 
tractile vescicle, which lies hidden between the ‘stomach and the 
ovary. (I found it in a specimen subject to lateral pressure.) 
From this they seem again to emerge, and run down the centre 
of the great saccate foot to the toes. A short cesophagus leads to 
an enormous sacculated alimentary chamber, of a yellow tint, 
which extends throughout the whole length of the body, and on 
its shoulders are seated two large pear-shaped, semi-transparent, 
and nucleated gastric glands, which are attached by their narrow 
end to the body-wall. The ovary is also of enormous size, with 
three or four ova in an advanced stage of development. The foot 
is thick and short, and almost entirely covered “above by a clear 
finger-like tail. The toes are very minute, sharply pointed, and 
placed close together in the centre of, and on the lowest level of, 
the foot. The foot glands are well developed. 
I found numbers of this fine species within the eggs of the 
water-snails, upon which they feed, in company with Furcularia 
micropus (?), and the eggs and the young of both species in every 
stage surrounded them. 
As may be anticipated from the habitat, its manners are 
sluggish, ever rolling about and inverting the extremities to the 
distraction of the student. I had the good fortune to catch a 
wanderer between the slide and the cover-glass, which enabled me 
to study it at leisure. When the species is only half grown it is 
hardly recognizable, and looks like a shapeless lump of wrinkled 
SCIEN. PROC. R.D.s., Vol. VIII., PART I. G 
