458 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RKSEARCHES RELATING TO 



reduced from' ten to five. The body of Diplodinium is covered by a 

 very resistant cuticle, divided into definite areas characterized by surface 

 markings. Three of these areas, because of their relation to under- 

 lying skeletal structures, are designated as left, right, and ventral 

 skeletal areas. These three areas, with their underlying skeletal struc- 

 tures, are separate at the anterior end of the animal, but merge 

 together as they approach the posterior extremity. They afford attach- 

 ment for the internal retractor structures. The arrangement of the 

 oral cilia and the adoral membranellas differs from that previously de- 

 scribed for this genus. Starting from a point on the left of the 

 animal, near the anterior extremity, the adoral row of membranellae 

 circles from left to right around the adoral region until it reaches a 

 point inside of and opposite to that from which it started, then, turning 

 upon itself, it reverses its direction and, as oral cilia, circles from right 

 to left round the oral opening. D. ecaudatum has a complicated neuro- 

 motor apparatus, seemingly nervous in function. It consists of a central 

 motor mass ! v motorium) from which definite strands radiate, one to 

 the roots of the dorsal inembranellaa, one to the roots of the adoral 

 membranellffi, one to the circum-oesophageal ring, and several into the 

 ectoplasm of the operculum. Each of these strands may give off one 

 or more branches. In the walls of the oesophagus both nervous and 

 contractile fibres may be distinguished. The structural and functional 

 relations of these parts indicate that they constitute a neuromotor 

 apparatus. 



Life-history of Ichthyosporidium gasterophilum.* — A. Alexeieff 

 has studied this parasite of the rectum of Motella mustela ; it was pre- 

 viously found by Caullery and Mesnil in the stomach- glands and pyloric 

 ca3ca of M. mustela and Liparis vulgaris. He describes the amoeboid 

 stage which may be binuclear or mononuclear, and shows chromidia and 

 fat globules : the schizogonic multiplication and the formation of moru- 

 loid and blastuloid plasm odia ; the physiological degeneration of the 

 plasmodia ; and the simple, almost amitotic, nuclear division. Alexeieff 

 comes to the conclusion that Ichthyosporidium and other Haplosporidia 

 should be removed from the Sporozoa and referred to the Mycetozoa. 

 A sub-order Haplomycetozose may be established to include Haplo- 

 sporididae, Endomycetozoidse, and Blastulididae. 



Life-history and Relationships of Stenophora.! — G. Tregouboff 

 has studied Stenophora juli A. Schneider, a parasite of Julus terrestris, 

 and describes the formation of gametocytes, the differentiation of 

 gametes, the process of chromatin reduction, the fertilization of the 

 macrogramete by the microgramete, and the subsequent divisions. The 

 gametes are very markedly anisogamous, the microga metes being sperm- 

 atozoa of the Nina type, the macrogametes being spherical ova. The 

 spores have eight sporozoites which are set at liberty by a simple rupture 

 of the cyst. The vegetative forms are polymorphic. The family Steno- 

 phoridas contains only the one genus Stenophora, and the affinities are 

 not with Gregarinidse but with Dactylophoridae. 



* Arch. Zool. Exper., liv. (1914) Notes et Revue, No. 2, pp. 30-44 (4 figs.), 

 t Arch. Zool. Exper., liv. (1914) Notes et Revue, No. 2, pp. 19-30 (1 fig.). 



