It frequently happens, especially in _annulata_, but also in _proteus_
and other forms with many pseudopods, that when an advancing pseudopod
is about to be withdrawn, there intervenes a stage where the endoplasm
in the distal part moves away from the ameba, while that in the proximal
part moves toward the ameba, with a neutral or motionless zone between.
In such case a particle on the distal end moves slowly toward the tip
while a particle in the proximal region moves toward the base of the
pseudopod. Particles over the neutral zone are motionless. In these
cases, however, changes in the direction and speed of the ectoplasmic
stream are too frequent and the relative strengths of the distal and
proximal currents too variable, to enable one to secure very accurate
data by means of camera lucida drawings (a kinematograph is essential
for this purpose), so no figures of the speed of movement of such
particles are given. Nevertheless the general results of the
observations are as stated. It might be added that in some cases the
neutral zone for the particles attached to the surface did not coincide
exactly with the neutral zone of the endoplasm, but was located a little
further distally.
From these observations it appears that a rough index of the direction
of movement of the surface film is the direction of the streaming of the
endoplasm; and that the surface layer moves away from regions where
ectoplasm is in the process of being converted into endoplasm. Since a
particle attached to the surface may remain for some time at the tip of
a retracting pseudopod, while one that is attached to the sides of a
pseudopod moves toward its base, it appears that the speed of the moving
surface film is not directly correlated to the rate of transformation of
ectoplasm into endoplasm. The slower speed of particles near the
posterior end points also in this direction. The formation of ectoplasm
at the anterior end seems therefore to be much more intimately connected
with the movement of the surface film than the destruction of the
ectoplasm, though it is not yet clear that the liquefaction of the
ectoplasm is altogether without effect.
Now as to the speed with which the surface film moves. The foregoing
illustrations and figures show that the particles attached to a
_sphaeronucleosus_ on the upper surface move from 2.5 to 3.6 times as
fast as the ameba (Figure 19) while particles attached to a _discoides_
move only from 1.2 to 2 times as fast as the ameba moves. In _proteus_
the speed of the particles is still slower, because of the longitudinal
ridge-like waves of protoplasm which are continually being thrown out.
In this species it frequently happens that because of the numerous
ridges, the ameba moves faster than the particles attached to the outer
surface; but this is to be looked upon as a mechanical complication, not
as indicating a difference in the nature of the surface layer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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