302 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Dolchinia which he has found in cylindrical pieces up to 40 cm. in length. 

 On each piece there is a groove in which buds arise, which passing 

 round the cylinder appear on the dorsal side as fully-developed organisms. 

 These represent a second sexless generation, and bear secondary buds 

 of different sizes. There are three generations in the life cycle : (1) 

 a solitary nurse form, with stolon and tail, (2) nurse generation, fixed 

 to the tail, and (8) a free sexual generation. The main difference 

 from Doliolum consists in the presence of lateral buds on the cylinder, 

 which the author considers are respiratory animals without nutritive 

 function. 



IN VERTEBR AT A . 



Mollusca. 

 y. Gastropoda. 



New Type of Gastropod.* — Heinrich Simroth describes a peculiar 

 form — Ostracolethe fruhstorferi g. et sp. n. — from Tongkin. There is a 

 rudimentary shell with a calcareous plate pressed into the intestinal 

 sac, a large thin conchin membrane, and an apex visible through a cleft 

 in the mantle. The jaw-plate is delicate, the radula has an extraordi- 

 narily large number of uniform teeth, with two points and a coiled 

 papilla at each side ; the oral disc is circular. The seminal filter is 

 segmented into a number of muscular discs, and there are many other 

 peculiarities. 



Simroth discusses the affinities between Ostracolethe and the Janellida?, 

 and the Hedylidre. Subsequent sections are devoted to the origin of 

 the iEolidiEe, the probable pedigree of the Holohepatica?, the origin 

 of the Prosobranchs, hermaphroditism in Molluscs, geographical con- 

 siderations, and a survey of Gastropods from an evolutionist point of 

 view. 



Abyssinian Slugs.f — H. Simroth gives a descriptive account of a 

 collection of twenty-one slugs from Abyssinia, including a new genus 

 Varania. The slug fauna of this region is extraordinarily rich and 

 peculiar ; it includes the phyletic root of Umax arborum, — the transi- 

 tion between Agriolimax and Lehmannia ; the Urocyclid fauna of 

 Abyssinia has nothing in common with that of Cameroon : it is rather 

 linked (by Spirotoxon) to that of German East Africa. The peculiarities 

 of the Abyssinian slugs, as to coloration, gut-coils, penis, etc., are dis- 

 cussed, and are interpreted in terms of the author's " Pendulations- 

 tlieorie." Interesting notes are made on the coloration. There is a 

 close connection between the pigments and the uric concretions — both 

 nitrogenous excretions of the hamiolymph, which may in diverse ways 

 replace one another both internally and in the skin. The excretion of 

 concretions instead of pigments seems to be prompted by the warm 

 climate, and is predominant in Africa, both on the skin and in _the 

 blood-vessels. 



* Zeitschr. wiss. Zool., lxxvi. (1904) pp. 612-72 (1 pi.). 

 f Zool. Jahrb., xix. (1904) pp. 673-726 (4 pis. and 4 figs). 



