Vol 5, p. 233-234. January 12, 1927 



Occasional Papers 



OF THE 



Boston Society of Natural History. 



NOTES ON THECAMOEBA VERRUCOSA EHRENBERG. 

 BY MILTON F. CROWELL. 



On December 4, 1923, the writer noticed a small patch of moss 

 growing on the interior sill of the insectary of the Department of 

 Entomology of the University of New Hampshire, at Durham, 

 N. H. This building is a small glass house, built like a green- 

 house. The foundation is of concrete, on top of which the sill, a 

 wooden "two by four," is laid, and the frame of the house is built 

 on the sill. The walls are window frames resting on the sill, and 

 fastened to the frame by bolts. The moss was growing on the 

 sill, inside of the house. 



Fig. 1. — Thecamoeba verrucosa Ehrenberg, from Durham, N. H. Two views 

 of the same specimen, greatly enlarged. 



This moss w as taken to the laboratory and moistened with dis- 

 tilled water. A slide was prepared for microscopic examination 

 from moisture squeezed from the wet moss. 



The only form observed, of which the writer has a record, was 

 Thecamoeba verrucosa Ehrenberg. 



F. L. Landacre (1908, p. 427) records this species as occurring 

 on aquatic plants from logs in the Basket Factory Cove, Sandusky 

 Bay, Ohio. In this cove a great deal of timber was floating. Ac- 

 cording to Leidy (1879, p. 54-55), Thecamoeba verrucosa is "very 

 common, found almost everywhere with moisture and algae." 

 He "found it in the ooze of ponds, ditches, and river shores, in the 

 rnud of marshes, in wet sphagnum, among the confervae of foun- 

 tains and dripping rocks, and in company with Rotifers, about 

 the roots of mosses, in the yard attached to my house." He 

 records it from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Con- 



