Gourret & Roeser '86; Bütschli '88; Schewiakoff '89.)

Body short to very long flask-shape; for the most part contractile,
especially in the neck region. The posterior end is rounded or
pointed. The main character is the mouth-bearing apex, which "sets
like a cork in the neck of the flask." One or more circles of long
cilia at the base of the mouth portion or upon it. The body is
spirally striped. Contractile vacuole terminal, with sometimes one
or two further forward. Macronucleus central, globular to elongate,
sometimes double. Food mainly bacteria. Fresh and salt water.


Lacrymaria lagenula Clap. & Lach. Fig. 28, a, b.

Synonym: _L. tenuicula_ Fromentel '74.

Body more or less flask-shape, two or three times as long as broad,
with conical apex, which is slightly elastic and protrusible; surface
obliquely striate, with well-defined lines, 14 to 16 in number; cilia
uniform on the body, with a crown of longer ones at the base of the
conical proboscis. The body cilia are not thickly placed except
around the proboscis. The endoplasm is thickly packed with large
granules (food particles) in the anterior half and with finely
granular particles in the posterior half. The elongate macronucleus
lies a little above the center among the larger granules; the
contractile vacuole is double, one on each side of the median line
and at the posterior end of the body among the finer granules. The
anus is posterior. Length 90µ to 160µ; greatest width assumed 65µ.
When fully expanded the posterior end assumes a curious polyhedral
form. (Fig. 28 b.)