462 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



South Australian Marine Isopods.* — W. H. Baker describes a 

 number of new Sphseromidas. He discusses the close resemblances 

 of the sexes when young, and their subsequent divergence. It seems 

 that the mature females which bear young may perish in the effort, 

 being sometimes apparently eaten by the brood. The following new 

 forms are dealt with -. — Gymodoce longicaudata sp. n., G. Jiamata sp. n., 

 Dynamene ramuscula sp. n., Amphoroidea angustata sp. n., Amphoroidella 

 dliptica sub-g. et sp.n., Moruloidea laeertosa g.etsp.n., Dyaamenopsis 

 obtusa g. et sp. n., Circeis trilobate sp. n., G. obtusa sp. n., and Hasivellia 

 cilicioides sp. n. 



Annulata. 



Oligochseta of the British Isles. t— Rowland Southern offers con- 

 tributions towards a monograph of the British and Irish Oligochaeta. 

 The only species peculiar to the British Isles are Eiscnietta macrura 

 Friend and Helodrihcs relictus sp. n. The age of the Irish earthworm 

 fauna is attested by the absence of the sub-genus Eophila, and the 

 presence of a small group of species having a discontinuous distribution 

 of the Lusitanian type, admittedly the oldest in our fauna. Southern 

 believes that in some way the fauna survived the Ice Age, either in Ire- 

 land, or in some neighbouring land free from ice, and in connection with 

 Ireland. He deals with 135 British species and sub-species— 79 in 

 England, 48 in Scotland, 22 in Wales, 16 in the Isle of Man, 96 in 

 Ireland. 



Regeneration of Anterior Portion of Chsetopterus.}— Ch. Gravier 

 recalls the fact that the anterior portion of this well-known tubicolous 

 Annelid can regrow the whole, and describes a case (Ghsetopterus 

 variopedatus Renier), in which the posterior region was re-growing the 

 anterior part, and re-growing it perfectly. There are usually 9 or 10 

 anterior setigerous segments, there are rarely 11, and very exceptionally 

 12 ; in the regenerated specimen described there were 12, which shows 

 that " nature has not here manifested the economical tendencies often 

 ascribed to her." 



Nephridia of Salmacina and Filograna.§— A. Malaquin finds that 

 the nephridial apparatus in the adults of these two genera corresponds to 

 a proto-nephridium. In its great simplicity and in its minute structure, 

 e.g. with flagella inserted directly on the internal wall, the adult neph- 

 ridium resembles the proto-nephridium of the larvae of Annelids and 

 Molluscs. 



Study of Tubificid8e.|| — W. Michaelsen finds that the setse are not 

 of much diagnostic value, that the structure of the nervous system is 

 useful in referring a type to one of the larger divisions of the family, 

 that the characters of the vascular' system depend much on size and 

 mode of life, and that the details of the nephridial apparatus are 



* Trans. R. Soc. South Australia, xxxii. (1908) pp. 138-62 (8 pis.). 



t Proc. R. Irish A.cad., xxvii., Section B, No. 8 (1908) pp. 119-82 (5 pis. and 

 3 figs.). \ Comptes Rendus, cxlviii. (1909) pp. 365-7. 



§ Op. cit., cxlvii. (1908) pp. 699-701. 



Arch. Natur., lxxiv. (1908) pp. 129-62 (1 pi.). See also Zool. Zentralbl., xv. 

 (1908) p. 682. 



