450 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Fauna of Forth Area.* — William Evans has done a useful piece of 

 work in making a report of what is at present known of the fauna of the 

 Forth area, 6865 species in all, of which the author has met with about 

 4250 in the course of his investigations. 



Fresh-water Microfauna of German East Africa.f — E. von Daday 

 reports on a large miscellaneous collection. Among the Protozoa there 

 are species of Arcella, Difflugia, Euglypha, Artinosphserium, Raphi- 

 diophrys, Peridinium, Geratium, Volvox, Trachelomonas, Euglena, 

 Trachelitis, Uronychia (1 new), Cothumia, Vorticella, Acineta (2 new), 

 Solenophyra (1 new). He also reports Hydra fusca, 2 new Cercarias, 

 2 new Cestode larvae, several new species of Nematodes (Trilobus, 

 Mononchus, Plectus, Cepluilobus, Dorylaimus), a new larval Echino- 

 rhynchus, and some Gastrotricha. 



Microscopic Fauna at Cape Royds. $ — James Murray directs atten- 

 tion to the abundant microscopic fauna at Cape Royds (77° 30' S.), 

 where there is no vegetation higher than mosses, and very few of these. 

 The kinds of animals which are usually to be found among mosses have 

 at Cape Royds a shelter of another sort, the foliaceous vegetation in 

 the lakes and ponds. On the surface and between the layers of this 

 they abound both summer and winter. In summer, when the ponds 

 are melted, they enjoy for some weeks a warm climate, the temperature 

 rising as high as 60° F. in some ponds. There they are sheltered from 

 the air, which would freeze them every day if they lived among the 

 mosses. In winter again they are frozen in the ice for many months, in 

 some of the deeper lakes for many years. 



Most abundant are the Rotifers (16 species), dominant among which 

 are Philodina gregaria sp. n., and Adineta grandis sp. n., both viviparous. 

 The water-bears are only of a few kinds, but one of them {Macrobiotus 

 antarrtmcs) is extremely abundant. There are Nematode worms of 

 two or more kinds, mites of several kinds, and two Entomostracan 

 Crustacea. The Ciliate Infusorians were very numerous, and there were 

 a good many Flagellates. Only two Rhizopods were found. 



Tunicata. 



Study of a Tunicate.§ — W. E. Ritter has made " a comprehensive 

 inquiry as to the extent of law and order that prevails in a single-animal 

 species." His subject was Halocynthia johnsoni sp. n. He directs special 

 attention to the " manifolding of similar parts " — some arising (like the 

 branchial stigmata) as lineally genetic series, others (like the tentacles) 

 arising as repeated productions from common original substrata. Many 

 of the repetitive series " are subject to definite schemes as to positional 

 arrangement and time of origin, and also as to mass relations." A Puget 

 Sound "species," H. haustor, is compared with the Calif ornian H. john- 

 soni, but " the attempt to find a causal relation, or a necessary correla- 

 tion, between the character differentials of the two species and their 

 environmental differentials has produced negative results." 



* Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc. Edinburgh, xvii. (1909) pp 1-64. 

 t Zoologica, xxiii. Heft. 59 (1910) pp. 1-56 (4 pis.). 



X Rep. British Antarctic Exped., 1907-9 (Biology) i. (1910) pp. 1-79 (13 pis. and 

 3 figs.). § Univ. California Publications (Zool.) vi. (1909) pp. 65-114 (8 pls.K 



