78 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEAJRCHES RELATING TO 



Mcdusao and worms ; the fact that the spot is sharply separated off 

 from the surrounding protoplasm speaks to its hij^h grade of develop- 

 ment. It would bo very interesting to test this creature in its 

 relation to the influence of light. The opercular apparatus and the 

 spiral are probably connected with the ingestion of food, while the 

 spores seem to liave the duty of storing up the prey. Ilcrtwig is 

 inclined to associate this remarkable Protozoon with the Vorticellidro. 

 [Since the above was in type C Vogt writes * that Hertwig's Proto- 

 zoon is a Vorticcllid torn from its attachment and killed just as it 

 was about to swallow the marginal body of a dead Medusa !J 



New Vorticellid.f — D. S. Kellicott describes and figures a now 

 and unusual infusorian of the family Vorticellidae, found near Buflfalo, 

 to which he gives the name of £^)/s///Z/s opliidioidea n. sp. It occurs 

 in colonies comprising two very distinct types of zooids, one long, 

 slender, snake-like, l/l5 to 1/37 in. in length ; the other shorter and 

 stouter, 1/90 to 1/GO in. in length, and trumpet shaped, while both 

 possess peristomes, reminding one of the open mouth of an ophidian. 

 The elongate, specialized or reproductive zooid is found in about the 

 proportion of one to twenty of the ordinary type. The long, slender, 

 brown pedicle is dichotomously and profusely branched ; its surface 

 finely striate lengthwise and articulate. The height of the largest 

 dcndrecia equals 1/6 in. The author discusses its relation to other 

 forms and thinks it should be compared with Episiijlis galea. 



Chlorophylloid Granules of Vorticella.^ — J. A. Eyder takes 

 exception to the conclusions of Prof. Eugclmann on this subject.§ 



The author describes and figures a specimen of Vorficella chloro- 

 stigma, in which the green matter is not " diftuse," as stated by Engel- 

 maun in regard to tlie species studied by him, but is restricted with 

 great regularity to individual granules, as in plants, and these form 

 an exceedingly well-defined one layered stratum, which is restricted 

 to the ectoi^lasm alone. 



It is true that there are certain Infusorians in which a bottle- 

 green tint is diti'used and not confined to distinct grains, as for instance, 

 in Stcntor Miillcrt and Freia jnoduda, but in S. polijmorphus and the 

 green species of Oplirydium the colour is confined to distinct granules, 

 as in the species of Vorticella figured. The uncoloured species of 

 Ophrydium (0. adse Everts) does not differ much in other respects 

 from its congeners, but the colourless Stenfor Rbseli does differ con- 

 siderably in form and details of habit from its allies. These are facts 

 which, it seems to the author, are almost fatal to the theory of the 

 existence of green parasitic vegetable forms in Infusorians, the only 

 facts favourable to the idea that the green colour is due to algous 

 parasites, being those noted of Ophrydium, a genus which affords an 

 instance of green and colourless forms, differing otherwise but slightly. 

 In fact, individual zooids of Ophrydium are sometimes met with 

 which are only partly green, or have only one-half the body coloured, 



* Zool. Anzeig., viii. (1885) p. 53. 



t Tlje Microscope, iv. (1884) pp. 248-53 (2 figs.). 



X Proc. U. S. National Museum, vii. (1884) pp. 9-12 (1 fig.). 



§ See this Journal, iii. (1883) p. 8G0. 



