50 THE PSYCHIC LIFE 



for a time in the interior of the Leucophrys's body 

 and afterwards to expire slowly under the action of 

 the digestive juices of the vacuole in which they have 

 jDeen enclosed. Placed in a medium well-stocked with 

 small Ciliates, the Leucophrys have their bodies con- 

 stantly crammed with victims swallowed in the man- 

 ner above described. Like the other hunter Ciliates 

 the Leucophrys does not espy its victims from a dis- 

 tance and does not guide itself towards them. It 

 simply darts about from right to left, every moment 

 changing its direction. It thus increases its chances 

 of coming in collision with its prey and every time 

 that one of its unfortunate victims falls in contact 

 with its vibratile lips, it is seized, irresistibly drawn 

 towards the mouth and swallowed within less than a 

 tenth of a minute." 



Certain hunter Infusoria have methods of pursuit 

 and capture which deserve to be examined separately. 

 Claparede and Lachman in their excellent work upon 

 Infusoria and Rhizopods, have minutely described the 

 manner in* which a large Infusory, the Amphileptus 

 Meleagris, attacks the Epistylis plicatilis. The Epis- 

 tylis are colonizing vorticels of which certain individ- 

 ual members attain a size of not less than o-2i mm. 

 The Epistylis form ab'orescent groups, the ramifica- 

 tions of which are quite regularly dichotomous. These 

 ramifications all grow at exactly the same rate and the 

 individual branches all rise to the same height, rep- 

 resenting what is called, in botany, a corymbous in- 

 florescence. "We were observing one day," says 

 Claparede, "in the hope of seeing what would come 

 of the manoeuvre, an Amphileptus, which was slowly 

 creeping upon a colony of Epistylis. The way in 

 which it approached the Vorticels, feeling them, so to. 



