ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 461 



a multinucleate Gregarine, not as related to Haplozoon. A description 

 is given of the ectoparasitic Peridinid Oymnodinium pulvisculus, which, 

 along with Apodinwm mycetoides Chatton he regards as leading on to 

 endoporasitic Haplozoon. According to the author, Haplozoon is best 

 referred to a somewhat vague group of Mesozoa along with the Dicye- 

 mids and Orthonectids. 



Rotifer a. 



Antarctic Rotifera.* — Amongst the results of Sir E. H. Shackleton's 

 recent Antarctic expedition, not the least interesting is the discovery of 

 an extensive micro-fauna, mostly Rotifera and Tardigrada, living in the 

 pools and small lakes which exist on Ross Island during the short 

 summer season, but which are frozen solid for about ten months in the 

 year. James Murray records sixteen species of Rotifera collected by 

 himself at Cape Royds, of which the following five species, all Bdelloids, 

 are described as new : Philodina gregaria, P. antarctica, P. alata, Catti- 

 dina annularis, Adineta grandis. The author enlarges on the severe 

 conditions under which these Rotifera manage to exist, and it appears 

 that their lives are actually prolonged by being frozen solid for ten 

 months or more, in order to resume an active and merry life during 

 the short succeeding summer. " They do not ask for much in the way 

 of luxury," the author observes ; " give them a week or two of warm 

 weather, say + 40° F., and they are content to be frozen up for years." 

 It is not a little surprising to find in these regions Floscidaria cornuta 

 and Hydatina senta, and it may be legitimate to inquire whether 

 Captain Scott's previous expedition had anything to do with the intro- 

 duction of these species. 



Echinoderma. 



Indian Ocean Echinoderms.t — F. Jeffrey Bell reports on Echino- 

 derms (other than Holothurians) collected by J. Stanley Gardiner in 

 the Western parts of the Indian Ocean. He describes Lysaster lorioli 

 g. et sp. n., a Pentagonasterid having some of the characters of Iconaster, 

 and two new species, Iconaster gardineri and Astronyx cooperi, the latter 

 in general appearance very much like the northern circuinpolar form 

 but differing in its radial shields and arm-spines. 



Gemmiform PedicellariaB.^— A. Gandolfi Hornyold discusses the 

 function of these peculiar pedicellariaa, which occur on the dorsal surface 

 of Echinocardiiim flavescens. It has been shown by Prouho and by Von 

 Uexkiill that these are poisonous, and Hornyold made the experiment 

 of placing a small Annelid in their vicinity. They bit it : a red fluid 

 flowed from their tips, and the worm was dead in a few minutes. The 

 pedicellarioe then separated themselves from the test and remained im- 

 bedded in the worm. They break off at the same point, at the joint 

 between pedicellaria and test, and they can be regenerated in about a 

 month. 



New Zealand Echinoderms.§ — W. B. Benham reports on a collec- 

 tion which includes thirteen species of Asteroids, six of Ophiuroids, seven 



* Rep. British Antarctic Exped., 1907-9, i. (1910) pp. 41-G5. 

 t Trans. Linn. Soc. (Zool.) xiii. (1909) pp. 17-22 (1 pi.). 

 % Biol. Centralbl., xxx. (1910) pp. 349-52 (1 fig.). 

 § Records Canterbury Museum, i. (1909) pp. 1-34 (5 pis.). 



