HARD WICKE ' S S CIENCE- G OS SI P. 



29 



The animal multiplies by division, and may occasion- 

 ally be observed in various stages of the process. Its 

 food consists of Rotifera, Infusoria, and Microscopic 

 Alga:. When one of the Rotifera, or 

 other active animal, swims against the 

 pseudopodial rays, they lay hold of the 

 object, and if successful in retaining it, 

 contract to the surface of the body, 

 drawing down the prey with them, 

 which is then surrounded by a portion 

 of the body protoplasm, after which 

 the mass is drawn in. There is a large 

 central nucleus, generally indistinct, and 

 a large bubble-like contracting vesicle, 

 situated at the periphery of the body. 

 Size variable, my specimen from ^ to 

 3J5 of an inch in diameter of body 

 Actinophrys picta, the only other species, 

 closely resembles A. sol, differing only 

 in the colourless granular protoplasm 

 having numerous green chlorophyll 

 granules scattered through its sub- 

 stance. I have found only one or two 

 specimens of this species, and it re- 

 quires no further description for its 

 identification. I now come to the last 

 of the Heliozoas for which I can fairly 

 claim a Rossendale habitat. 



Actinospherium Eichhomii was for- 

 merly placed in the previous genus, but 

 was eventually separated on account of important 

 differences. It is large, and not nearly so common 

 here as Acti?iophrys sol ; indeed, I only know one pond, 

 a mill-lodge, from which I occasionally get specimens ; 

 in this the water is somewhat warm from the waste 

 steam which, on condensation, runs into it. It differs 

 from Actinophrys, as I have said, in being larger, but 

 its most obvious distinction is the fact of its being 

 separable into two layers — an outer, composed of a 

 single or double row of well-marked vesicles, some- 

 what regularly placed — the interior not so well- 

 defined. The outer vesicles are in the form of 

 short, six-sided columns, and the broader end out- 

 ward, in order to form the sphere. The animal is 

 spherical or oval, colourless and hyaline as regards 

 the marginal vesicles ; interior frequently clouded. 

 The pseudopodial rays may be numerous or few, 

 granular, tapering, and radiate as in Actinophrys, 

 though not so long proportionately,* and in this genus 

 there is an axial thread -of more solid protoplasm in 

 each of the rays, which, though spine-like, and not 

 rigid, yet give strength and support to them. These 

 threads arise from the surface of the interior mass, 

 and reach nearly to the tip of each pseudopodial ray. 

 Food, habits and habitat same as Actinophrys ; 

 nuclei numerous, brought out by reagents ; con- 

 tracting vesicles two, on opposite sides, bubble-like. 



* Rays rarely as loDg as in the figure. 



Size of body from ^5 to tJ, of an inch. Rays about,- 

 or not quite equal in length, to diameter of body. 

 In my next I propose to figure and describe the new 



Fig. 13. — Actinospherium EicJtliornii. 



forms which have come under my observation, 

 though many particulars are wanting before they can 



be correctly placed. 



J. E. Lord. 

 Rawtmstall. 



P.S. I regret, that owing to^the excessive wetness 

 of 1 89 1, and other causes, I shall have to defer a 

 description of my new forms until a future occasion. 

 —J. E. L. 



O 



EUROPEAN BUTTERFLIES. 



[Continued from No. 324, p. 277.] 



N my way from Neuchatel to Zermatt I stopped 

 the night at Sierre, where three years ago I 

 got a fine series of Daplidice in the grounds of that 

 most comfortable hotel, the Belle Vue. Podalirius 

 abounds here at the proper season, and Didyma is 

 quite as abundant. Here, too, is to be found in the 

 roads that run through the vineyards to the north of 

 the town, in greater numbers than I have ever seen it 

 elsewhere, three, four, even five specimens on one 

 plant of Eupatorium caimabinum being by no means 

 unusual, and this in the full sunshine. I once caught 

 it there at its.best, and got some magnificent examples 

 of this strikingly beautiful insect. In the morning, 

 before starting for Zermatt, I took a saunter round 

 the rather extensive grounds of the hotel (once a. 



