124 SUMMAKY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



for long referred to the loLworm {Arenicola), which has its eggs in a 

 €ord, in one row or in several rows. The spawn of Spio is a flattened 

 tubular mass, 10-16 mm. in length, with a delicate envelope. The 

 eggs are in one layer, or in several layers, each layer with about a 

 dozen longitudinal rows. The colour is from yellowish-white to 

 slightly orange. The eggs are briefly described. 



Brancliiura sowerhyi in France.* — R. Despax records the abundant 

 occurrence of this interesting limicolous Oligoch^et in the canal at 

 Toulouse. The worm was foimd among the decomposing detritus at the 

 margin, and the author regards it as probably indigenous. It lives 

 with the anterior end embedded in the substratum, with the posterior 

 branchiferous part floating out and ceaselessly undulating. Beddard 

 described it in 1892 from Victoria regiu tanks in the Botanical Society's 

 garden in London, and Michaelsen from a similar situation in Hamburg. 

 It has heen generally regarded as an imported exotic. It should be 

 noted, however, that L. Perrier recorded it from the overflow water- 

 basins of the Bhone, and now we have its occurrence at Toulouse. 



Genus Jasmineira.f — W. C. Mcintosh discusses this genus instituted 

 by Langerhans in 1880 for a minute Sabellid from Madeira. The 

 differences which Langerhans indicated between Josmineira and the 

 other Sabellids, especially the Chonids, are by no means striking, but 

 there is an essential feature which escaped him, viz. the remarkable 

 elongation of the posterior hooks. In the British Ghone reayi and the 

 Canadian C. princei the typical Jasmineiroid hooks are present and 

 carried a stage further, but in other respects these species link the 

 genera Jasmineira and Chone closely together. 



Spawning and Exuviation in Areniccla.| — H. C. Williamson has 

 made experiments with a view to obtaining normally spawned eggs of 

 Arenicola marina. Some specimens from the Bay of Nigg were put 

 into a box, with saud taken from the same place, on May 7th, A week 

 later a greenish capsule containing green eggs was found, and four 

 similar capsules appeared before the end of June. A larva examined 

 between the fourth and sixth day showed two eye-spots. A zone round 

 the larva had long, thick, tentacle-like cilia, turned towards the eyed 

 end. The cilia worked for a little and then stopped, almost every 

 second. Careful examination of the apparently gelatinous mass 

 surrounding both the capsules deposited in the box and those found on 

 the beach showed that it was in reality fibrous and was in all probability 

 the cast-off skin of the w^orm, which is wrapped round the cocoon, and 

 anchors it to a piece of seaweed or stone. From the fact that the 

 capsules were found above the level of the sand — 6 in. in one case — 

 the author infers that the adult was swimming when the eggs were 



* Bull. Soc. Zool. France, xli. (1916) pp. 4G-8. 



t Journ. Zool. Research, i. (1916) pp. 1-3. 



X Journ. Zool. Research, i. (1916) pp. 102-11 (12 figs.). 



