No. 612] 3IYX0SP0EIDIAX LIFE CYCLE 721 



complicated process takes place. As tlie young uninucle- 

 ated forms develop we see an animal with three nuclei, all 

 of the same size. Later multiplication of these vegetative 

 nuclei and the formation of big syncytial masses occur. 

 The plasmatic bodies of these vegetative animals contain 

 two kinds of round corpuscles, '^Eeservekorper" and 

 ''Fai'btrager." In my publication in the ArcJiiv fiir Pro- 

 tistenhunde, 1917, I give proof that the "Reservekorper" 

 consists mostly of glycogen and I point out that the gly- 

 cogenous contents are used up during spore formation. 

 The vegetative animal can multiply either by division or 

 by forming small vegetative gemmules (Erdmann, 1911). 

 The fact that inside the animal vegetative propagative 

 bodies can arise, was verified by Davis, 1915, pp. 354^355, 

 in Sphcerospora dimorpha. 



Before the onset of spore formation a differentiation 

 in the syncytial masses of CMoromyxum leydigi begins. 

 We can distinguish parts in which the nuclei multiply and 

 other parts where only the vegetative nuclei are seen 

 widely scattered in the protoplasm. I called the first- 

 mentioned areas islands" (Erdmann, 1911) because in 

 the living animal they rise above the surface of the vege- 

 tative plasmatic body. They are distinguished by their 

 pale color and in stained preparations by their large num- 

 ber of small nuclei. At first all the nuclei in these islands 

 are of the same size. Two nuclei with small cytoplasmic 

 bodies approach each other and each cell divides up into 

 a small and a big cell. The two small cells draw out in 

 length and surround the two big ones, in this manner 

 separating them from the other cells in the island. This 

 quadruple group, two big cells and two small ones, is the 

 starting point for the formation of the whole spore. The 

 two big cells are gametocytes. These two gametocjies 

 divide and form two gametes and two other cells which 

 after a further division give rise to four cells— these four 

 cells are the four capsulogenous cells. The whole spore 

 contains, therefore, eight cells— four capsulogenous cells, 

 two gametes and two cells which form the spore mem- 

 brane. (Fig. 1.) 



