612 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



may be considered a practical arrangement to remove Anwopus from 

 the last-named subfamily, which Mill now be a much more uniform and 

 more sharply defined group, unless indeed some form be discovered 

 which will prove to be a transition between Eurydice and Annropus. 

 After such a discovery the subfamily Amiropinse should be withdrawn. 

 The author also contributes some additional and critical remarks to 

 Bouvier's beautiful and exhaustive treatment of Baihynomus yig'anteus. 



Copepoda from Faroe Channel.*' — Thomas Scott discusses seven 

 species of Copepods, each representing a separate genus, all belonging 

 to the Harpacticidse, which were obtained from a single piece of wood 

 dredged from about 87 fathoms in the Faroe Channel. Three of the 

 species, Pseudotachidius similis, Laophante far'den sis, and Cfctodes armata, 

 are new ; the others are all more or less widely distributed. The com- 

 munication emphasises the desirability of carefully examining pieces of 

 water-logged and partly decayed wood which may be brought up in the 

 dredge or trawl-net. These pieces of wood not infrequently harbour 

 rare, or even new, Entomostraca. 



Annulata. 



Minute Structure of the Alimentary Canal of the Leech.f — 

 'C. Spiess distinguishes three regions in the alimentary tract of Hirudo 

 medicinaUs, — (1) an anterior region including buccal cavity and pharynx, 



(2) a median or stomach region with the eleven paired pouches, and 



(3) a posterior or intestinal region. The walls are simple and but 

 feebly differentiated. The stomach walls are reduced to two membranes 

 ■comparable to the gastric mucous membrane in Vertebrates. The 

 stomach-epithelium is glandular, with uniformly distributed secretory 

 <:ells, like muciparous elements ; but in no region are there differentiated 

 glands in the strict sense. 



The peripharyngeal glandular cells secrete, slowly but continuously, 

 a product formed of refringent granulations, and with fermenting power 

 (dissolving fibrin). 



The pigmentary layer around the gut is formed of a large number 

 of sinuous canaliculi, lined internally with large cells which are also 

 seen in the blood-vessels. They are not hepatic, but they contain 

 excretory granules analogous to those in the chloragogen cells of Oligo- 

 chaits, and they eliminate indigo-carmine like the excretory cells on the 

 ■caeca of Aphrodite. 



Distribution and Affinities of Sipunculids.} — Marcel A. Herubel 

 begins by giving an account of the bathymetrical and horizontal dis- 

 tribution of Sipuiiciilus, Phascolosoma, and Phymosoma on the Brittany 

 coasts. He then discusses the distribution of Sipunculids throughout 

 the world. The most differentiated species occur in warm regions, e.g. 

 Asp ido siphon yigas, Echinosvphon aspergillum, and Phascolion rnanceps. 

 The cosmopolitanism of Sipunculids is only apparent. They were pro- 

 bably northern in origin and have immigrated towards the equator. 



* Journ. Linn. Soc. (Zool.), xxix. (1903) pp. 1-11 (3 pis.). 



t Revue Suisse Zool., xi. (1903) pp. 151-239 (3 pis.). 



% Bull. Soc. Zool. France, xxviii. (1903) pp. 99-111 (2 figs.). 



