Page:Scientific results HMS Challenger vol 18 part 1.djvu/220

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Definition.— with simple spherical nucleus, without any alveoli (either within or outside the central capsule).

The genus Actissa is the most simple and typical form of all Radiolaria, and may be regarded as the common ancestral form of the whole class. The spherical body is composed of a simple spherical capsule and a concentric spherical calymma or jelly-envelope. Neither the former nor the latter contains alveoli. The central capsule possesses a strong membrane perforated by small pores, and contains in the intracapsular sarcode numerous small pellucid vacuoles, and in its middle a simple, concentric, spherical nucleus (often with some nucleoli); sometimes also one or more oil-globules. The extracapsularium forms a soft, voluminous, structureless calymma or enveloping jelly-sphere, perforated by the numberless, fine pseudopodia, which radiate outwards from the matrix or the thin granulated sarcode-layer, surrounding the capsule. Often (but not constantly) xanthellæ or yellow cells are scattered in it. Actissa differs from the following skeletonless genera in the absence of all alveoli; it has neither intracapsular alveoli (like Thalassolampe) nor extracapsular alveoli (like Thalassicolla). The first observed species of this genus is that which I found in 1866 at the Canary Islands, Actissa prototypus; the second is that which Hertwig accurately described in 1879, from the Mediterranean (Messina), Actissa primordialis; the third I observed in 1881 at Ceylon, frequent and sporiparous, Actissa princeps. A fourth species (Actissa radiata) exhibited a distinct radial segmentation of the capsule-contents. These four species are quite spherical. Six other species, occurring in different preparations from the Challenger, are distinguished by modifications of the spherical capsule-form and may represent three different subgenera (or, perhaps better, genera?)—Actiprunum ellipsoidal, Actidiscus lenticular, Actilarcus lentelliptical; perhaps these are the ancestral forms of the three sections:, ,.