818 SUMMAEY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



The following classification is adopted : — 



Protozoa. 



Sections. Grade A. Gymnomyxa. 

 Proteana ,. .. Class I. Proteomyxa. Vampyrella, Protomyxa. 



Plasmodiata . . .. „ II. Myeetozoa. Enmycetozoa oi Zopf. 



Lobosa „ III. Lobosa. Amoeba, Arcella. 



I„ IV. Labyrinthulidea. Lahyrinthula, Chlamydomyxa. 



„ V. Heliozoa. Actinophrys. 



„ VI. Eeticularia. Groniia, Gldhigerina. 



„ VII. Radiolaria. Tlialassicolla, Acanthometra. 



Grade B. Corticata. 



Lipostoma .. .. „ I. Sporozoa. Greganna, Coccidium. 



f,, II. Flagellata. Monas, Euglena, Volvox. 



„ III. Dinoflagellata. Prorocentrum, Ceratium. 



„ IV. Ehynchoflagellata. Noctiluca, 



„ V. Ciliata. Vorticella, Stentor. 



„ VI. Acinetaria. Acineta, Dendrosoma. 



Chemical Composition of Zoocytium of Ophrydium versatile.* 

 Dr W. D. Halliburton has investigated the chemical nature of the 

 jelly, mucilaginous investing matrix, or zoocytium which is exuded 

 by the colonial ciliated protozoon O. versatile. The lumps of jelly 

 were about an inch in diameter, firm, colourless, and transparent. On 

 the surface were green patches due to chlorophyll. 



The substance resembles vegetable cellulose in its general pro- 

 perties, and only differs by being less easily converted into sugar ; 

 herein it resembles tunicin, or the substance of which the test of the 

 Tunicata is formed. Dr. Halliburton directs attention to the fact that 

 we have here an animal in which chlorophyll and cellulose coexist. 



Freia Ampulla 0. F. Miill., the Flask-animalcule. f — Prof. K. 



Mobius, after a description of the infusorian, says that in many capsules 

 there is, at the side of the hind-body of a perfectly developed in- 

 dividual, a young animal without funnel-lobes, nearly uniformly 

 rounded off anteriorly and posteriorly, and produced by fission from 

 the body of the parent animal. This, when it is still connected with 

 its parent only by a slender cord, stretches the fore part of the body 

 out of the capsule, tears itself free, and swims away, carried along by fine 

 cilia which cover the whole body in close longitudinal series. At the 

 anterior extremity rudiments of pectinellse already show themselves, 

 and a slight notch is the beginning of the formation of the funnel- 

 lobes. After the young animal has swum about freely for a time, it 

 attaches itself to some firm support and secretes the material of the 

 capsule as a transparent mass, thicker behind than before, where it is 

 not yet turned out as in mature individuals. 



Anoplophrya circulans.;}: — A new parasitic infusorian allied 

 to Opalina is described under the above name, by Prof. E. G. Balbiani, 



* Quart Journ. Micr. Sci., xxv. (1885) pp. 445-7. 



t Schriften Naturw. Ver. Schleswig-Holstein, vi. (1885), See Ann. and 

 Mag. Nat. Hist., xvi. (1885) pp. 154-5. 



% Eecueil Zool. Suisse, ii. (1885) pp. 277-305 (1 pi.). 



