] 898,] NEW SPECIES OF LOPHOMOXAS. 243 



latter also described another species with the same habitat, under 

 the name L. striata. 



Mr. Saville Kent, who established the family Lophomonadidse 

 to receive this genus, in the ' Manual of the Infusoria,' gives the 

 following diagnosis, viz. : — - 



" The genus Lophomonas Stein. 



" Animalcules free-swimming ; somewhat plastic and variable in 

 form, spheerical, ovate or fusiform, bearing at the anterior ex- 

 tremity a crescent-shaped fascicle of long slender flagellse ; endo- 

 plast sometimes distinct ; contractile vesicle not yet recognized ; 

 inhabiting the intestinal canal of various Insecta." 



On examining the contents of the intestine of Blatta amen- 

 cana I observed a form which, although it possessed all the 

 generic characteristics above cited, differs very markedly from 

 either of the two species hitherto described, and which I propose 

 to designate hy the name Lopliomonas sulcata (fig. 1). 



Fig.l. 



Lophomonas sulcata, X 800. 

 L0PH0M0I?^AS STJXCATA, Sp. n. 



This Protozoon is of comparatively large size, being about 60 or 

 70 ju or 3^ inch in length ; whereas L. hlattarum is g-^ in length, 

 and L. striata ■^. The body is subfusiform in shape, with the 

 anterior extremity truncate and bearing the fascicle of the f^agella, 

 and the posterior extremity bearing a tail-like projection, ex- 

 ceedingly variable in length (in some cases this projection is almost 

 entirely absent, in others it was fully half the length of the body). 

 The body is divided by a deep sulcus into two lobes, and the whole 

 surface is covered by well-marked oblique striae; the internal 

 protoplasm is hyaline : no endoplast (after treatment with osmic 

 acid and picro-carmine) or contractile vesicle was observed. 



Although I have watched several living specimens, I have never 

 seen a solid particle of food-matter ingested, and therefore consider 

 it probable that the animal obtains nourishment by the absorption of 

 dissolved proteids, &c., over the entire surface of the body. These 

 Protozoa were present in only one part of the alimentary canal, 

 namelv, in the upper part of the colon. 



16* 



