The Rotifera of China. By V. G. Thorpe. 
149 
back to communicate with the lateral antenna, and it therefore 
becomes a question whether the function of this so-called antenna is 
other than that of a sense-organ. The contractile vesicle is in close 
connection with the cloaca, but it is still a moot point as to whether 
the lateral canals open into it or into the cloaca. I am inclined to 
think that they really do open into the contractile vesicle, for I several 
times observed, though not invariably, that they were dragged down- 
wards, on the contraction of the vesicle. Also the addition of car- 
mine to the water, as suggested by Dr. Hudson,* did not reveal the 
presence of a return current through the cloacal aperture during 
the diastole of the contractile vesicle. 
The ovary is flat and ribbon-shaped (fig. 2, h), and curved in a 
horse-shoe form, similar to that of Notops clavulatus, and on this 
account I am inclined to propose the transference of the genus 
Trochosphsera from the family Melicertidae to the family Hyda- 
tinidse, as an aberrant form. The collapsed oviduct can be detected 
as a filmy thread passing from the ovary to the cloaca. The winter 
eggs are similar to those of T. sequatorialis , being covered with long 
spices, and the central part undergoing unequal binary division.! 
Four pairs of muscle-hands of different lengths are attached from 
the ciliary zone to the inner surface of the cutis below, drawing the 
ciliary wreath into graceful sinuous curves. Their function, how- 
ever, appears to be abortive, as nothing analogous to the contractions 
seen in other Eotifera has been detected. 
The four Eotifera about to be described belong to the genera 
Lacinularia and Megalotrocha , the characteristics of which will need 
further modification. As these rotifers are evidently near the 
divisional line, across which these two genera blend, it is difficult to 
feel absolute certainty in which genus each should properly be placed. 
I propose the following definitions of these genera : — 
Common Characteristics. — Individuals solitary or in clusters ; 
fixed or free-swimming ; corona a modification of an ellipse, oblique, 
with a ventral sinus, and a dorsal gap in the ciliary wreath. 
Lacinularia. — Individuals with adhering gelatinous tubes. 
Megalotrocha . — Individuals without adherent gelatinous tubes ; 
truuk with or without opaque warts, spines, &c., and with or with- 
out an “ oviferon.” J 
Lacinularia megalotrocha. PI. II. fig. 3. 
Here is a rotifer inhabiting a gelatinous tube, and possessing a 
corona similar to that of Megalotrocha albojlavicans , but carrying no 
opaque warts on its trunk. The corona is kidney-shaped, oblique, 
with its shorter axis placed dorso-ventrally, and with a deep ventral 
sinus ; dorsal gap in the ciliary wreath very minute. The trophi are 
* This Journal, 1891, Presidential Address, p. 14. 
f This Journal, 1891, pi. vi. fig. 1 d. 
j For definition of this term see below, p. 151. 
