JOUBNAL 



OF THE 



ROYAL MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 



APKIL 1883. 



TEANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY. 



IV. — Five New Floseules ; with a Note on Prof. Leidy's Genera 

 of Acydus and Dictyojphora. 



By 0. T. Hudson, LL.D., F.E.M.S. 



(^Bead Uth March, 1883.) 



Plates III. and IV. 



Until quite lately there were only six known species of the genus 

 FlosGularia, yiz. :—F. ornata Pallas, 1766 ; F. prohoscidea Ehren- 

 berg, 1832 ; F. campanulata and F. cornuta Dobie, 1849 ; F. 

 coroneUa Cubitt, 1869 ; F. cyclops Cubitt, 1871. To these have 

 been added, during the last three years, no less than five other 

 species, viz. : — F. trifolium Hudson, 1881 ,* F. regalis Hudson, 

 1882 ; and F. amhigua, F. longicaudata, and F. Eoodii, which 

 have not yet been described. Mr. Hood has also sent me from 

 Dundee two specimens of what both he and I think is possibly 

 another new species, called by Mr. Hood " the ringed Floscule," 

 but whose extremely short hairs and impoverished lobes made 

 me fear that it might only be one of the old species in bad 

 condition. As, however, Mr. Hood has promised to look out for 

 it this summer, I think it better to leave it for the present 

 undescribed. 



F. Eoodii. (Plate III. figs. 1, 2.) 



This beautiful and strange creature was sent to me by Mr. Hood 

 on the 25th December last year. He had just found it in a ditch 

 on Tent's Muir in Fifeshire, along with F. amhigua and (Ecistes 

 pilula. It is the largest of all the rotifers, as adult specimens are 

 quite 1-1 0th of an inch long from the top of the dorsal lobe to the 

 extremity of the peduncle. Its great size and its possession (like 

 F. trifolium) of only three lobes would make it sufficiently re- 

 markable ; but in addition to these pecuUarities it has two extra- 



Ser. 2.— Vol. III. M 



