No. 549] 



A CASE OF POLYMOTtrilISM 



species of animals arc capable of so numerous and varic< 

 nutritive transitions and respond to them in so funda- 

 mental and varied manners as does this Asplm/clma. 



Before closing this paper it becomes a disagreeabl ' 

 necessity to attempt some more definite systematic plac< 

 merit of the forms of Asplanchna here discussed. Tlr 



place, it is obvious that the facts here recorded tend t< 

 disturb our very conception of what constitutes a specie 



morphism as. on the whole, a little more applicable to tlr 

 facts of heterogenesis here cited than would be the in- 



whether several of the other A sphu/cli nil types hithertc 

 described as distinct species may not likewise be closel. 

 related genetic forms, connected, as are those here de- 

 scribed, either with each other or possibly with these 

 very types. Thus a relationship is readily thinkable 

 between A. ebbesbornii and A. intermedia or A. sieboldi 

 or possibly of one or the other with A. brightwelli: 

 although the disparity of the males in this last typ. 

 renders relationship less probable. 



Moreover, in the literature of the subject the claim hap 

 been made at least once that such a relation-hip exist 



from Wesenberg-Limd s in which he cites Daday to this 

 effect, will show : 



