1889.] H. H. Anderson— Notes on Indian Botifers. 351 



a distinct curve wMcli enabled it to fit itself into the tube, so that, short 

 as the latter is, the whole body of the rotifer is protected by it. This 

 fact seems to me to go far towards proving that the rotifer is accustom- 

 ed to live in a tube, though whether it makes it own tube or occupies 

 empty tubes made by other creatures, I am not in a position to decide. 

 Length about It is rare. 



16. Actinurds ovatus, n. sp., PI. XX, Figs. G & (3, a. 



Though diifering in some particulars from the diagnosis of this 

 genus as given in Hudson and Gosse's book, it can belong to no other. 

 It has the extreme length and tenuity of form, the joints of the loug and 

 slender foot telescope into one another without sensible increase of 

 diameter ; the eyes are two, situated in the frontal column ; the teeth 

 are two, diverging. But in complete contraction the shape of the body 

 does change. The joints of the foot fit into one another and may be 

 drawn back right into the body without causing it to bulge, but the 

 body itself is often lessened in length and increased in breadth till it be- 

 comes almost globular in shape. In this it resembles the genus Botifer. 



There is only one other known species of this genus, Actinurns 

 neptunius. From this the species I am describing differs in the cha- 

 racteristic just mentioned of the contractility of the body. It also 

 differs in the shape of the body, which is not cylindrical but wider 

 posteriorly ; viewed dorsally it is seen to bo nearly twice as wide at the 

 hinder end of the body as it is at the neck. A side view shows that 

 the back rises in almost a straight line from the neck to near the ex- 

 treme end of the body, where it suddenly falls to the foot. The ventral 

 sarfaoe also is not flat but bulges slightly. When extended to its fullest, 

 the length of the body is abont three times its breadth, in A. neptunius 

 it is about eight times as great. 



The eyes are two, small, near tho summit of the frontal column ; the 

 corona small, constantly protruded, and in constant motion. The 

 mastax is not far from the corona, and has two gastric glands fairly 

 large and visible. The digestive canal is perfectly straight when the crea- 

 ture is fnlly extended, and there is a clear distinction between the 

 stomach and the intestine. The cloaca is situated at the bottom of the 

 second joint of the foot. The spurs are small, not two-jointed, and the 

 toes very long, often recurved. The surface of the body is deejsly cor- 

 rugated longitudinally, but in some specimens is very transparent and 

 the viscera can easily be distinguished. These do not nearly fill tlie 

 body cavity and strong muscles may be seen which assist in the con- 

 traction. I was unable to make out the vascular system. 



In very many of the specimens there were living young in the 

 45 



