174 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



specimen having been idcnlilied by the late W. Denison Roebuck. 

 The variety differs from the typical form in possessing, instead of 

 one dark brown band encircling the whorls, one or more darker 

 spiral bands. The variety, previously unknown from Scotland, 

 has several English records, and occurs in Switzerland. {Glasgozv 

 Naturalist^ vol. viii., 1920, p. 127.) 



Development of the Common Sun-Stau. A valuable account 

 of the history of the Common Sun-Star {Crossaster pa/>posus) by 

 Prof. J. F. Gemmill appears in Quart. Join: Micr. Sc, vol. 64, 1920, 

 p 155. The development up to the appearance of the mouth and 

 anal openings lasts throughout some seven to eight weeks, and 

 during that period every change of significance in the unfolding of 

 the miniature Starfish through the fasting larval stage has been 

 recorded. In the Firth of Clyde the spawning season occurs in 

 March and April, the arms and sucker are hinted at nine or ten 

 days after the fertilisation of the egg, the first indication of skeletal 

 plates occurs on the seventeenth or eighteenth day, sucker fixation 

 begins about the nineteenth day, and shortly after the sucker feet on 

 the arms begin to act (twenty-eighth to thirtieth day) sucker fixation 

 is lost (thirty-fifth day) and the Starfish begins a free life. 



Development of Sea-Anemones. Two related Sea-Anemones 

 the Plumose Anemone {Metridium dia?ithus) and the Cloak 

 Anemone {Adaiiisia paltiata), have been made the subject of a 

 detailed study of development by Prof J. F. Gemmill {Phil. Trans. 

 Roy. Soc, Ser. B., vol. 209, pp. 351-75). The former begins to 

 spawn in the Firth of Clyde in June, the latter in September and 

 October. The observations made by the author lead him to suggest 

 that Sea-Anemones acquired an ectodermal gullet and the rudiments 

 of bilateral symmetry during a creeping ancestral stage, from which 

 also the Leaf-worms or Turbellaria and the higher Metazoa were 

 derived. 



Sheep Tapeworm {Moniezia) in Scotland. Tapeworms of 

 the genus Moniezia occur in the small intestine of sheep, and are 

 most often met with in lambs, being particularly noticeable in 

 faeces during summer and autumn. Adults may attain a length 

 of 12 to 16 feet: Mr F. W. Flattely gives some account of the 

 habits of these tapeworms and says that although M. expausa is 

 regarded as the commonest form in Britain, other species have 

 been recorded by him from Aberdeenshire and Inverness-shire 

 {Scot. Jour. Agric, 1920, p. 180). 



