AMERICAN FOLLICULINAS: TAXONOMIC 

 NOTES 



The ciliated infusorian Folllculina, the bottle ani- 

 malcule," was first recorded by 0. F. Muller in 1781 and 

 was by him described amongst 75 Vorticellas as one liv- 

 ing in an ampulla or bottle. The name FolUculina was 

 suggested by Lamarck in 1816, yet he, having no personal 

 observations of the creature, placed it among. the rotifers. 

 However, the true affinities of the bottle makers with the 

 stentors became evident to Claparede in 1858, though 

 members of the group have been referred by others to 

 such genera as Cothurnia, Ascohius and Vaginicola from 

 insufficient knowledge of the animal within the bottle. 

 Two observers emphasized the nature of the bottle maker 

 rather than the bottle itself in seeking to establish for it 

 the generic names Freia and Lagotia; the former given 

 it by Claparede as having the forme gracieuse et ele- 

 gante d'une Freia," and the latter by Wright, in the 

 same year, from the long lobes of the animal that resem- 

 ble the ears of a hare. 



The only careful studies of the animal have been made 

 by Stein in 1867 and by Mobius in 1887. The latter was 

 inclined to regard all the then known species as local 

 varieties of the original Vorticella ampulla 0. F. Miiller. 

 But recently Carl Dons in Nor\vay has made very minute 

 study of the bottles as found in many localities and has 

 come to the conclusion that these alone may be used as 

 sufficient basis for establishing species, even without the 

 animal, which, to be sure, is rarely preserved in museum 

 material. He would recognize some ten species, most of 

 which he finds in Norway, but many of which are wide- 

 spread ovci- iho w(^rl(l. 



These tm species he proposes to di-ti-ilnite amongst 

 four new gciuTn as follows: The orii^-inal forms of Muller 



