THE PARASITES OF THE TERMITES. 431 



into the more homogeneous and transparent structure of the ectosarc. It is com- 

 paratively more distinctly and coarsely granular than the head endosarc, and is of 

 much less uniformity. Its finer granular basis is mingled with larger granules of 

 variable definition. It is also usually mixed with variable proportions of irregular, 

 more darkly defined, and often angular particles, which appear to be fragments of 

 solid food, bits of wood -tissue, derived from the food materials of the host of 

 Trichonympha. The supposed food particles are mostly directly mingled with the 

 granular matter composing the mass of the body endosarc, and were rarely and 

 but indistinctly observed to be included in globules of clearer matter, as is com- 

 monly the case in most protozoans which swallow solid food. In the movements 

 and changes of shape of Trichonpjipha I never distinctly observed a freely fluent 

 condition of the contents of the body endosarc, such as occurs in the rhizopods 

 and other protozoans. 



If the irregular particles so commonly observed in the body endosarc of 

 Trichonympha are really solid food particles, I have been sorely puzzled and have 

 failed to ascertain how they obtained entrance into the body. I have watched 

 myriads of individuals hours together, without ever having seen one of them 

 swallow or discharge a particle of food. I have been unable to detect anything 

 like a mouth; and the ectosarc, unlike that of the rhizopods, has rather the 

 unyielding character of that of Gregarina. I could detect no trace of a passage 

 through the head endosarc, nor ever saw a particle within it which might be on 

 its way to the body endosarc. 



Occasionally I have observed among the more ordinary constituents of the body 

 endosarc one or several clear globules or vacuoles. Though these have been 

 obscurely seen to slowly enlarge and also to disappear, yet they did not present 

 anything like the rhythmical movements of the contractile vesicle, so commonly an 

 element of the protozoans. 



In a few instances, in some individuals, I have further observed in the endo- 

 sarc one or two large, coarsely granular spheres, as represented in Fig. 7. I have 

 not been able to ascertain their nature, but have suspected that they are masses of 

 ova-like bodies or spores. 



The integument or ectosarc of Trichonympha appears to be homogeneous, 

 and is transparent and elastic. It is also contractile, like that of Gregarina, but 

 is in no wise extensible like that of rhizopods. Upon the head it is thicker than 

 upon the body, and is more distinctly defined from the corresponding portion of 

 the endosarc. It has appeared to me to present a delicate and regularly longitudi- 

 nally striated condition, such as I have pointed out in the integument of Grega- 



