84 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Biitschli is thus recognized, as also tlie nature of the belt of cor- 

 puscles wliicli appears in tlie mature forms. This observation is of 

 general interest, as illustrating a change from a more to a less active 

 cell-phase at the period of reproduction, and also as indicating the 

 exhaustion of the mother protoplasm in the production of the spores. 



The Tintinnodea.* — Prof. G. Entz commences with an account 

 of Tintinnidium fiuvialile, in which especial attention is given to the 

 peristomial disc and to the characters of the ciliation ; the ecto- and 

 endoplasm are not sharply distinguished, and the cuticle is nothing 

 more than a limiting layer, somewhat more resistant than the rest of 

 the protoplasm, and is not to be demonstrated by reagents; the 

 nucleus is frequently elongated in form, and has a cleft-like cavity 

 which divides it into two, often unequal, halves; the addition of 

 acetic acid reveals the presence of clearly defined internal corpuscles. 

 The process of division is effected in much the same way as in Stentor, 

 commencing T^ith the formation of a fresh peristome and contractile 

 vacuole. Attention is directed to the great similarity which obtains 

 between free-swimming Tintinnods and the larva of the sponge 

 Beniera fiUgrana described by W. Marshall in 1882, and the various 

 attempts (the last of which was that of Mr. S. Kent) to derive the 

 various phyla of the Metazoa from the Ciliata ; Prof. Entz thinks 

 that till the gulf between the Protozoa and the Metazoa has been 

 bridged over we must be content to look upon such resemblances as 

 being merely interesting phenomena of convergence. 



The second form described is a new species of Godonella — G. 

 lacustris — the test of which is like that of the Difflugise in that it is 

 beset with angular pieces of silex. The third chapter deals with the 

 tests of some pelagic Tintinnodea; these, which are rare in the 

 intestine of Antedou rosaceus, are always found in Salpae ; the 

 commonest are those of Godonella heroidea and G. lagenula, hundreds 

 of which may be found in the intestine of one Salpa ; the new species 

 described are Tintinnus lusus undse, T. claparedii, Dictyocysta poly- 

 morpha (which the author had previously called Godonella perforata), 

 D. millepora, and Gyttarocylis euplectella ; the last is perhaps identical 

 with Fol's G. cystellula, from which it is distinguished by the greater 

 diameter of its alveoli, by the absence of larger cilia below the 

 equatorial zone, and by the absence of the inwardly directed mem- 

 brane which characterizes the mouth of Fol's species; the author 

 allows that all these differences may be due to individual variation. 



New Symbiotic Infusorian.t — Dr. A, C. Stokes describes Leu- 

 copJirys emarginata n. sp., in which the chlorophyll corpuscles lie so 

 close as almost to form a continuous subcuticular layer ; the author 

 doubts whether these are, as Brandt thinks, symbiotic algee, for though 

 they are sufficiently multiplied, the infusorian is voracious. Similarly 

 he hesitates to accept the doctrine that the green colouring matter is 

 in all low animal forms symbiotic ; in several Infusoria the coloration 

 is diffused, and not collected into granules, discs, or spherules. 



* MT. Zool. Stat. Neapel, vi. (1885) pp. 185-216 (2 pis.), 

 t Journ. New York Micr. Soc, i. (1885) pp. 152-4. 



