368 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEABCHES RELATING 



New Species of Henlea.* — Paul S. Welch describes Henlea tubuli- 

 fera sp. n. from the shore of Burt Lake, Michigan. There are already 

 more than fifty species in this Enchytraeid genus. The new form is 

 closely related to Henlea moderata Welch, but there are distinct differ- 

 ences in the brain, peptonephridia, clitellum, somites, seta?, and penial 

 bulb. None of the other American species of the genus appear to be 

 at all closely related. The specimens were obtained under decaying 

 bark and among debris of fallen timber. 



The lymphocytes are large and numerous, and mostly circular in 

 outline. They are sparse at the anterior end, but near the ninth 

 segment they" fill the whole body cavity. Two peptonephridia are 

 present, one on the dorsal and the other on the ventral side of the 

 digestive tract in the sixth segment. Both adhere very closely to the 

 walls of the gut. Each is an irregular, tubular mass showing ramifying 

 lumina and nucleated walls. The dorsal peptonephridium gives off a 

 few irregular branches which extend into the c'celom. The author gives 

 a detailed account of the intestinal diverticulum, which is made up of a 

 series of branching, rather thick-walled tubules which arise from the 

 gut in the posterior part of the eighth segment and extend towards the 

 head. 



Nernatohelminthes. 



Philippine Filaria.f — E. L. Walker gives a careful description of 

 the adults of the Filaria found in the Philippine Islands. Ashburn 

 and Craig, who discovered Filariae in the blood of a native, referred 

 them to a new species, F. philippinensis, but Walker believes that it is 

 identical with F. bancrofti. All the essential external features corres- 

 pond, e.g. the two series of tiny papillae on the head, the delicate cross- 

 striations, the pyriform enlargement of the receptaculum seminis, the 

 tendril-like coiling of the male's tail, the two dissimilar spicules, the 

 three pairs of post-anal papilla?, the numerous (about thirty-two) pre- 

 anal papillae, and the sheath of the larva. 



Genus Dermatoxys.J — L. G. Seurat finds that Bermatoxys veligera 

 (Rud.), which Schneider established for a parasite in Lejnts brasilimsis, 

 occurs in Algiers in Lepus kabilicus, and that it is very closely related 

 to D. getula, which he found in a squirrel in Morocco. A careful 

 description of I), veligera is given, and it is shown that the genus is 

 closely related to Oxyuris spinicauda Duj., a central type among 

 Oxyurids. In the structure of the oesophagus and in the shape of the 

 tail in the male, D. veligera appears to be one of the most evolved of 

 the Oxyurids. 



Platyhelminth.es. 



Toxic Action of Intestinal Worms. § — Demettre Em. Paulian refers 

 to the view that nervous troubles are brought on by irritation of the 



* Trans. Amer. Micr. Soc, xxxiii. (1914) pp. 155-63 (1 pi.), 

 t Philippine Journ. Sci., ix. (1914) pp. 483-91 (1 pi.). 

 X C.R. Soc. Biol. Paris, lxxviii. (1915) pp. 75-9 (4 figs.). 

 § C.R. Soc. Biol. Paris, lxxviii. (1915) pp. 73-5. 



