147 
The Rotifera of China. By V. G. Thorpe. 
bably secroted by several nucleated glandular cells situated in the 
foot. The nutritive system follows the usual type of the Melicertidae. 
The mastax is large, and the trophi (fig. 1 d) powerful, orange- 
tinted, and of the malleo-ramate type, the unci 4-toothed, and non- 
symmetrical, the teeth when closing appearing to interlock. The 
stomach is capacious, and large gastric glands are present. The vas- 
cular system consists of two lateral canals, each with four vibratile 
tags. These lead into an extremely small contractile vesicle, at the 
side of the rectum, just before its termination in the cloaca. The two 
ventral antennse are small, but obvious ; a dorsal antenna was not 
detected. The chin is conspicuous, but small. Two very minute red 
eyes were detected, deep-set, and close together, the lenses of which 
showed up well under pressure after treatment with liquor potassae. 
The foot is about the same length as the body, and contains numerous 
muscles. The animal is solitary, but is by no means timid, readily 
expanding in all its beauty after any slight disturbance. Length 
1/14 in. 
Trochosphsera solstitialis. PL II. fig. 2. 
Sp. Ch. — Free-swimming. Sphere unequally divided by the 
ciliary zones. 
In January 1889, I had the good fortune to find in a pond in 
Brisbane, Australia, the wonderful rotiferon Trochosphsera sequatori- 
alis * It was therefore with no small pleasure that I came across, in 
a pond in Wuhu, in August 1892, a new and distinct species belong- 
ing to this remarkable genus. If, for the purpose of illustration, we 
compare the spherical body of this rotifer to the form of the earth, 
then, in the case of T. sequatorialis, the wreath of cilia encircles the 
sphere as the line of the equator does the earth, whilst in T. solstitialis 
it encircles it like the Tropic of Cancer (“ Circulus solstitialis ”) 
dividing it into two unequal segments, of which the oral, containing 
all the organs of the body, is three times greater than the aboral. In 
addition to this division by means of the ciliary zone, the rotifer can 
be again divided by means of an imaginary plane passing vertically 
behind the eyes at right angles to the zone, into dorsal and ventral 
portions, the dorsal containing the mouth, digestive system, and 
cloaca, the lateral canals, the nervous ganglion, the eyes and lateral 
antennae, and the ventral portion containing the ovary and the ventral 
antenna. I am aware that this description differs from that of 
T. sequatorialis , given by Dr. Hudson, in the monograph of the 
“ Rotifera, ” but we have a good precedent for placing the buccal 
orifice on the dorsal surface in the genus Conochilus, by which means 
the other organs retain their relative positions, the ovary being 
towards the ventral surface, and the nervous ganglion and the cloacal 
orifice on the dorsal ; at the same time the gap in the ciliary wreath 
* This Journal, 1891, p. 301 ; Proc. Roy. Soc. Queensland, 1889, p. 71.' 
