ii8 



AQUATIC MICROSCOPY FOR BEGINNERS. 



plant, and settling down upon it, proceeds to perforate 

 the cell-wall, and to remove the color bands with the 

 entire cell-contents by drawing them whole into its 

 body, leaving the cell entirely empty and with a rag- 

 ged hole in the side. I have seen one Vampyrella re- 

 move the contents from seven Spirogyra cells in suc- 

 cession before its appetite was appeased. 



3. ACANTHOCYSTIS CH/«t6pH0RA (Fig. 94). 



Body spherical, soft, usually colored green by the 

 numerous green granules within. When the. animal 

 changes its shape, which it seldom does, and then 



slowly, it becomes 

 oval or slightly ir- 

 regular in outline. 



The pseudopodia 

 are fine and hair- 

 like, springing from 

 all parts of the sur- 

 face, but the pecu- 

 liarity by which it 

 may easily be re- 

 cognized is the 

 dense growth of 

 spines covering the 

 entire surface of the 

 body, their ends 

 being forked or divided into two short, straight, diverg- 

 ing branches. To see these forked ends demands a 

 rather high-power objective, as they are small, but 

 the spines themselves are visible with a comparatively 

 low-power. They seem not very securely fastened to 

 the animal; some of them often become loosened .^nd 



Fig. 94.^Acanthocystis chastophora. 



