Sara G. Foullce — Endoparasite of JSToteus. 377 



Aet. XLIX. — An Undoparasite of Noteus; by Sara Gwen- 

 dolen Foulke. 



In classifying the Oiliata- Holotricha, W. Saville Kent has 

 created a special division for those members of the order which 

 possess no distinct oral aperture, distinguishing them as the 

 Holotricha- Astomata. This division includes but one family 

 group — the Opalinidee — comprising four genera: Opalina, Ano- 

 plophrya, Hapiophrya, and Hoplitophrya. The Opalinidas are, 

 without exception, endoparasitic in habit. 



Of these four genera the characteristics may be summed up 

 as follows : Opalina and Anoplophrya are both free swimming 

 without means of attachment, and differ chiefly in the form of 

 their endoplast ; Haptophrya and Hoplitophrya are both fur- 

 nished with means of attachment, the difference in form of 

 which furnishes the generic distinction, the former possessing a 

 sucking disc, the latter a corneous keel-like band, or one or 

 more hooks. Opalina proper is further separated by restricting 

 its habitat to " the intestinal viscera of various 'tailed or tailless 

 Amphibia." 



A Noteus, species unknown, having been crushed in the live- 

 box, there were expelled from the animal's body, with its fluids 

 ciliated bodies exhibiting decided movements. Scarcely more 

 tangible in their colorless transparency than air-bubbles, these 

 bodies, varying in shape from globose to ovate, were more or 

 less uniformly clothed with long, delicate cilia, whose rhythmi- 

 cal undulations produced but slight onward motion. No endo- 

 plasm was visible, and no opportunity for the use of reagents 

 was afforded, as, in about ten minutes, the bodies became qui- 

 escent, and then rapidly disintegrated, the cilia disappearing 

 first. Dr. Jos. Leidy recommends as a successful medium of 

 preservation for such forms a little white of egg introduced 

 into the water, which is not of itself sufficiently dense to sup- 

 port so delicate cell-walls. 



One of the forms was gourd-shaped, the constriction bei no- 

 slightly above the middle, the whole appearance strongly sug- 

 gesting lateral fission. Another, perfectly globose individual 

 contained a number of the refractive germ-like bodies charac- 

 teristic of the Protozoa, which, on being liberated by the dis- 

 solution of the parent cell, dispersed through the water, prob- 

 ably to seek a new host and complete the cycle of development. 

 On the globular form the cilia appeared to be placed in bands 

 or clusters, while those on the ovate form were more evenly 

 distributed. It is possible that one may be merely an imma- 

 ture form of the other. 



|f Am. Joue. Sci— Thied Series, Vol. XXX, No. 179.— Nov., 1885 

 24 



