i6 



HA RD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



desmid [Botiyoeoeeus Braunii), in conjugation. Mr. 

 Fred. Enock, n, Parolles Road, Upper Holloway, 

 lias forwarded the latest of his instructive entomo- 

 logical slides, containing the " Scissor Bug" 

 (Heterotopia merioptcra) mounted complete, with 

 extended wings, feet, and antenna?. From Mr. \V. S. 

 Anderson, Granby Street, Ilkeston, we have received 

 a box of neatly mounted, and highly interesting 

 slides of the following objects : Dung beetle (Philo- 

 nothus marginatus), active pupa of Water Boatman 

 (N. glauea), larva of Puss moth (Dieranura vinula), 

 Frog-bopper (Aphrophora spumarid), Honey-bee 

 (Apis mellifera), and ground spider (Agelea elegans). 

 It can hardly be said there is no " Royal road to 

 knowledge," when students are catered for in this 

 instructive manner. 



The Royal Microscopical Society. — The 

 December "Journal" contains the following papers, 

 besides the usual useful and thoroughly exhaustive 

 " Summary of Research " — " Flagellated Protozoa in 

 the Blood of Diseased and Apparently Healthy 

 Animals," by Dr. Edgar M. Crookshank ; and " On 

 Trichodina as an Endoparasite," by T. B. Rosseter. 

 Both papers are illustrated by plates. Dr. Crookshank's 

 paper is highly important and not a little suggestive. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Slug Variation.— The notes I sent you on Mr. 

 "Williams's papers having been written before the 

 appearance of the last of these in the September 

 number, I now subjoin such few further corrections 

 as seem desirable in relation to this. Page 202 : 

 (1) add vars. nigripes, Stabile, and malaeologorum, 

 Colb., as well as several very peculiar varieties 

 described and figured by Pini in 1S76; (2) var. 

 luetuosa has been found in Yorkshire, at Shipley 

 Glen ; (3) to Z. arborum add vars. heynemanni, Biz., 

 albomaculata, Krege., carpatiea, Hazay (a marbled or 

 obscurely mottled form, with dark side-bands and a 

 pale keel), tigrina, Weinl., flava, Weinl. (1876), 

 obscura, Esmark, and diaiue, Heyn., and to the 

 British forms add rupicola (found by Mr. Delap in 

 Waterford, at 2,300 feet above sea level), nemorosa 

 (recorded from Ireland and Hampshire), maeulata, 

 and decipiens (both Irish) ; (4) three forms of L. l&vis, 

 mucronata, maeulata, and (monst.) intcntaculata have 

 been described, as also three, xanthina, squammatina, 

 and grisea, of Z. tenellus ; (5) Testacella maugei, var. 

 viridans, Morelet, is bronzy-green, with an orange 

 sole ; it has been found in South Ireland and in 

 Portugal ; (6) Heynemann has described three 

 colour- varieties of Geomalaeus maculosus from 

 Ireland, which he calls typiea, allmani, and 

 verkruzeni, and gives a very excellent coloured 

 figure of allmani. Mabille has called the white 

 form with black spots var. andrewsi. It seems 



probable that some changes in nomenclature will be 

 necessary before our British slug-list is brought into 

 harmony with the ideas of Continental conchologists 

 and the laws of priority. Limax jlavus, of Linne, 

 will have to be called by Draparnaud's name, varie- 

 galus, and Z. maximus, Linne, will be called 

 Z. einereus of Muller, the description given by 

 Linne being in either case insufficient for identifica- 

 tion, some authors (as, for instance, Miss Esmark, in 

 the "Journal of Conchology") identifying Linne's 

 maximus with what we know as einereo-niger. 

 Limax tenellus must be credited to Nilsson, Midler's 

 description being too vague, and apparently of some 

 other species. Arion bourguignati, Mabille (mis- 

 printed " Bouginalli") is recorded by Mr. Hudson, 

 on p. 259, from Middlesborough district, and is also 

 reported in the " Naturalist " .from another York- 

 shire locality, and in the "Journal of Conchology" 

 from Sussex, so it will be as well, for the information 

 of conchologists, to give some account of its pe- 

 culiarities. According to Mabille (Rev. Zool. 1868), 

 it is whitish-grey, blackish on the back, with lateral 

 bands ; there is a dorsal keel, which is prominent in 

 young individuals, but scarcely observable in adults, 

 appearing only as a pale line ; the foot is whitish ; 

 length about 40 mil. This species is more nearly 

 allied to A. kortensis than any other of our British 

 forms, but it is now generally regarded on the 

 Continent as distinct. — T. D. A. Coekerell, Bedford 

 Park, Chiswick. 



Planorbis lineatus, Walker. — I have lately 

 collected some half-dozen specimens of this shell, of 

 an abnormal size. Their breadth is exactly jh mm. 

 while Moquin gives 6 mm. as maximum and Jeffreys 

 5 mm. They occurred in a small pond near Cam- 

 bridge, about 6 yds. square, associated with Pal. 

 contecta, Bythinia Leaehii, Planorbis nitidus, corneus, 

 vortex, complanatus, carinatus, Valvata cristata and 

 oihexs.-^-Broeklon Tomlin. 



Limax agrestis, var. alba — I have recently 

 taken a pure white example of this species at Bedford 

 Park, Chiswick, living amongst Carduus arvensis, 

 together with the usual form of the species. This 

 variety is an albino, whereas^the var. albida, Picard, as 

 described by Moquin-Tandon, seems only to have 

 been a very pale form of the type, or allied thereto. — 

 T. D. A. Coekerell, Bedford Park. 



Pisidium ROSEUM IN Surrey. — Mr. Taylor has 

 identified as Pisidium roseum some Pisidia which I 

 have lately found in a ditch on the banks of the 

 Thames at Putney. This is the first locality in 

 Surrey that has been recorded for the species, though 

 it has been found in considerable numbers on the 

 opposite side of the river, in the moat surrounding 

 Fulham Palace. — F. G. Fenn, Bedford Park. 



"The Rotifera." By C. F. Hudson, LL.D., 

 and P. H. Gosse, F.R.S. (London : Longmans). — 



