82 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 
and sometimes mottled skin, revolving and twisting incessantly. 
In one of the eggs upon which they were feeding I noticed two 
small apertures, by which no doubt they had epediell an cnn 
The length in fret individuals varies from =; to 35 of an 
inch ; the width from ,5 to ~1, of aninch. | 
Habitat.—In egg-clusters of water-snails. A pond, Co. Wex- 
ford. 
Furcularia micropus (?), Gosse. 
[The Rotifera, vol. 11. p. 46. ] 
LPlD VIE. fies 2.) 
Sp. Ch.—Body cylindric, larviform ; head truncate; brain 
ample, with small red eye-speck near the lower end ; trophi forei- 
pate, broad ; foot broad; toes two, small, cone-shaped. 
Owing to its extreme flexibility and unceasing contortions the 
shape of the creature defies description. It seemed to delight in 
giving itself temporary waists in impossible places all along the 
line, and the shape portrayed one moment was wrong the next. 
"he head is not large, and generally truncate on the margin, but 
sometimes it is projected forward in the middle, and bent down 
until the disc is almost prone. There is an ample brain, within 
which is seated a tiny red eye-speck toward the lower end. The 
trophi are broad and very conspicuous ; they are situated 
rather low in the neck, but are brought to the margin by the 
retraction of the’ head when required. ‘The stomach is large, the 
contents thickly nucleated. The foot is broad, and rather flat, 
and indistinctly marked off from the body. The foot glands are 
well developed. The toes—two small cones—are set close together 
and diverge. I noticed that at the extremities of the frontal 
margin there was an appearance of auricles, but a closer scrutiny 
proved it to be delusive. Iam not certain that the coronal dise 
was a complete circle; occasionally it appeared to break off ab- 
ruptly, and run down in a V-shaped slit on the ventral side. The 
sketch giving a lateral view, represents the animal in its most 
habitual attitude when feeding, with sunken neck, and head bent 
backward. When swimming in open space it shrinks up the body 
into numberless close-set folds, squares the frontal margin, and loses 
all trace of its former appearance as it wags itself merrily along. 
