148 



SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Mkroscolex phosphoreus at Peshawar, in the extreme north of India, 

 Too miles from the sea, is interesting since the species had its proba 

 original home in the temperate zone of South America, whence, with 

 other representatives of its genus, it lias been drifted across the South 

 Atlantic and Indian Oceans and become widely distributed in the 

 Southern Hemisphere. Some of the other records are of much interest. 



Leptonereis glauca Claparede.*- -L. N. G. Ramsay describes this" 

 small Nereid from wharf piles at Plymouth. He revises the characters of 

 the genus which agree with those of Nereis, except in the following respects. 

 The proboscis is furnished only with soft papillae : the notopodium and 

 neuropodium are rather deeply divided; in the male heteronereid, the body 

 is divided into three distinct regions, the middle one only being modified 

 for swimming, while the posterior is marked by the appearance of 

 peculiar fused setae, not present in the Nereid-form or in the female 

 heteronereid. The species of Leptonereis are discussed, and it is pointed 

 out that Leon nates pusillus of Langerhans is at least vary closely related 

 to Leptonereis glauca of Claparede. 



Nernatohelminthes. 



Structure of Female Genital Apparatus in Spiruridae.t— L. G. 

 Seurat has made a comparative study of the female genital apparatus in 

 this family of Nematodes. The simplest type is seen in Protospirura 

 numidica of the cat. The large vulva, a little behind the middle of the 

 body, is connected with a relatively short straight ovijector, which has 

 no reservoir for storing the eggs. The uteri run in opposite directions, 

 one towards the head and one towards the tail. 



Spirura, remarkable for an attaching cutaneous fold in the region 

 of the oesophagus, has female genital parts like those in Protospimra, 

 from which it may be derived. Another branch leads to Gongylonema, 

 living in a burrow in the mucous membrane. In this genus the uteri 

 are divergent as before, but the vulva is near the anus. In Gongylonema 

 scuta turn Midler, the ovijector is almost half as long as the body (31 mm. 

 in an individual of 70 mm. in total length) and in Viguiera euryoptera 

 Rud. the ovijector is also very long. 



In other Spiruridge the vestibule and the sphincter are not in a 

 straight line, e.g. in Hartertia ; in Habronema, a central group, the 

 vestibule may be straight and without a storing receptacle, as in 

 H. microstoma Schn. of the horse, or with a pyriform reservoir capable 

 of holding 200 eggs as in H. muscae, also from the horse. 



From Habronema two series diverge. In one the vulva approaches 

 the anus ; in the other it is shunted towards the head. In both, there 

 tends to be a change in the position of the uteri, which come to lie side 

 by side. The first series includes Cyrnea and Tropidocerca ; the second 

 series includes Physocephalus, Arduenna, Spirocerca. The author's 

 general conclusion is that the condition of the female genital organs 

 ^ives a clue to phylogenetic relationships. 



* Journ. Marine Biol. Assoc, x. (1914) pp. 214-52 (1 pi.). 

 + Cornptes Rendus, clix. (1 ( J14) pp. 1016-18. 



