ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 451 



INVERTEBRATA. 



Mollusca. 



(Ecological Study of Molluscs.* — F. C. Baker has made an ceco- 

 logical study of the Stokie Marsh Area, near Chicago, with particular 

 reference to the Molluscs. In illustration of the value of this kind of 

 study, it is pointed out that Physa yyrina and P. oledcea were always 

 associated, a fact which led to a recognition of the latter species as a 

 half-grown stage of the former. In the same way it was found that 

 Lymnaea palustris micliiyanensis Walker, L. reflexa crystalensis Baker, 

 and L. reflexa Say, are three stages of one form. The author deals with 

 thirty-eight species and varieties found in the area, which is 3 miles long 

 and half a mile broad. 



o. Cephalopoda. 

 Young Spirula.f — L. Joubin describes the first young Spirula that 

 has been seen. It was captured from 3000 m. south-east of the Canaries 

 by the Prince of Monaco. It was about 5 mm. long. The shell had 

 six chambers, forming almost a whorl. It was completely covered by 

 the mantle. The lateral diverticula of the visceral cavity, which he on 

 each side of the shell in the adult, were not developed. There is no hint 

 of the median posterior sucker. The eyes do not show any of the tele- 

 scopic character seen in the adult. 



Dibranchiate Cephalopods of Coasts of Ireland. J— Anne L. Massy 

 deals with twenty-seven species, eight of which are now recorded for the 

 first time in British waters. To the family Cranchiidse an interesting 

 new form is added, Helicoeranchia pfefferi. The new genus is thus de- 

 fined : — Body elongated, chalice-shaped, tapering gradually to a rounded 

 point. Mantle substance tough, smooth, pale, with many small chroma- 

 tophores. Fins considerable, oval, pedunculate, attached to end of the 

 dorsal surface of the body. Eyes on short stalks, large, in the form of a 

 low cone. Arms long, with keel and lateral membrane moderately de- 

 veloped. Tentacles long and expanded into a club. Siphon extremely 

 large. 



Salivary Juice of Cephalopods.§ — Etienne de Rouville has experi- 

 mented with the extract of the glands of the common Eledone moschata. 

 The extract of the posterior salivary glands is markedly toxic for the 

 rabbit ; the extract of the anterior glands is less active, but also toxic 

 (crabs and rabbits). The poison acts on the central nervous system of 

 the crab. In the rabbit it acts on the respiratory and vascular centres : 

 it dilates the vessels, and the blood remains liquid. 



#. Gastropoda. 



Early Stage of Acm8ea.|| — Edward S. Morselfinds that in the nucleus 

 of very young specimens of Acmsea testudinalis, less than half a milli- 

 metre in length, there is no suggestion of a coiled " nautiloid " shell. 



* Bull. Illinois Stat. Lab. Nat. Hist., viii. (1910) pp. 441-90 (20 pis.). 

 t Comptes Rendus, cl. (1910) pp. 414-15. 



X Scient. Invest. Fisheries Ireland, No. 1 (1909) pp. 1-39 (3 pis.). 

 § Bull. Acad. Sci. Montpellier, No. 5 (1910) pp. 125-47 (2 figs.). 

 11 Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., xxxiv. (1910) pp. 313-23 (8 figs.). 



2 H 2 



