THE PARASITES OF THE TERMITES. 445 



thrix. The characters of this, as originally established by Kiitzing (Phycologia 

 Generalis, 1843, 150), are as follows: "Trichomata ex articulus globosis vel ellip- 

 ticis, solidis, non vaginatis, minutissimis, arete conjunctis composita, plerumque 

 moniliforma, aut libera, aut in stratum lubricum, amorphum implicata." The 

 genus included minute filamentous algaB growing parasitic on other and longer 

 algae, and on other aquatic or submerged plants and on rocks. 



M. Kobin also refers the algous filaments growing on the human teeth to the 

 same genus, under the name of Leptothrix buccalis. The fine threads of this are 

 inarticulate, homogeneous, and without evident spores. Rabenhorst (Flora Euro- 

 psea Algarum, L, 1865, 73) says of the subfamily to which Leptothrix belongs: 

 " Propagatio adhuc ignota," 



The essential characters of Leptothrix apply sufficiently well to the parasitic 

 algae I have described under the name of Arthromitus, but as the spores of the 

 former remain unknown, it would, perhaps, be of doubtful propriety in the present 

 condition of our information to drop the latter name. 



M. Kobin further describes a parasitic plant, found in the rectum of Julus 

 terrestris, and in Dytiscus marginalis under the name of Leptothrix insectorum. 

 While I suspect that this may pertain to Arthromitus, the figures of the filaments 

 exhibit a structure such as I never saw in the latter, and they show no spores such 

 as pertain to Arthromitus. 



In conclusion, as if to fill up the measure of life capable of being sustained by 

 the Termite, it is infested with a mite, a species of Gamasus. 



