572 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Monograph on Ixodoidea* — G. H. F. Nuttall and C. Warburton, 

 assisted by W. F. Cooper and L. E. Robinson, have begun a very 

 welcome finely illustrated monograph on Ixodoidea. Part I. deals 

 with the Argasidaa, their classification and destinctive features, the 

 genera Argas and Omithodoros, and their numerous species. The 

 authors discuss also the oecology of the Argasidas, the effects of their bites, 

 their relation to the spread of disease, and the like. 



e. Crustacea. 



New Schizopods from Alaska. t — A. E. Ortmann describes among 

 other forms a new genus Holmesiella, which necessitates a change in the 

 definition of Leptomysinae. The chief character of the genus is the 

 elongation of the inner ramus of the fourth pair of pleopods in the male. 



New Species of Grandidierella.J — T. R. R. Stebbing describes a 

 new species of this interesting genus, which was established by Coutiere 

 in 1904 for Grandidierella mahafalensis from a salt lake in Madagascar. 

 Professor Coutiere expressed an expectation that marine examples of his 

 singular new species would be forthcoming on the west coast of Mada- 

 gascar. This discovery has apparently not been made, but what has 

 actually happened is perhaps of even greater interest. A closely related 

 species — G. bonnieri sp. n. — is now described by Stebbing from brackish 

 ponds in Lower Bengal. " Their differences may be considered to prove 

 that the two species have been for a long time isolated one from 

 another. Yet, whatever the interval in chronology, the vast intervening 

 space of ocean has left unobliterated and in fact unobscured the evidence 

 of a common ancestry." 



Caridina nilotica and its Varieties.§ — J. G. De Man makes a 

 detailed study of this Atyid Crustacean, which has nine varieties — the 

 differences relating mainly to the teeth on the rostrum, and to the 

 proportions and spines of the thoracic legs. By means of abundant 

 measurements he has been able to introduce order into the species 

 Caridina nilotica Roux. 



Monograph on Swiss Isopods.|| — Job. Carl has done an admirable 

 piece of work in his monograph on Swiss Isopods. He gives an account 

 of each species, with much interesting information as to habits and 

 distribution. He has added eighteen species or varieties to the Swiss 

 list, including three new species and five new varieties. The list now 

 stands at forty-two in all. In general, the Isopod fauna of Switzerland 

 is like that of Central and North Europe, but there is an interesting 

 mingling with southern species. 



Leidya distorta.lf — Harriet Richardson gives a description of this 

 curious Isopod, which Leidy recorded as parasitic on Uca pugilator, 



* Ticks : a Monograph of the Ixodoidea. Part I. The Argasidae. Cambridge, 

 1908, xxxv. and 104 pp. (3 pis. and 114 figs.). 



t Proc. U.S. Nat. Museum, xxxiv. (1908) pp. 1-10 (1 pi.). 

 X Records Indian Museum, ii. (1908) pp. 119-23) 1 pi.). 

 § Tom. cit., pp. 255-83 (1 pi.). 



|| Neue Denkschr. Schweiz. Nat. Ges., xlii. (1908) pp. 113-242 (6 pis.). 

 1| Proc. U.S. Nat. Museum, xxxiv. (1908) pp. 23-6 (5 figs.). 



