302 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



This is due in part to the expansion of the end of the foot into a disc 

 like a mushroom-anchor, about two inches in diameter, and upturned 

 edges. " Even a soft, fleshy mushroom anchor pressing into the sand 

 would give an enormous hold." The spawn of Oscanius (Pleurobranehus) 

 membranaceus is a soft gelatinous ribbon, about one inch thick and 

 several feet long in an irregular coil. A spiral thread, containing the 

 egg-capsules, runs through the ribbon. There seems to be one egg in 

 each capsule ; the diameter of an egg is about ■ 1 mm. and that of a 

 capsule 0"16 mm. 



Period of Sexual Maturity in Marine Animals.* — Salvatore Lo 

 Bianco supplements his previous collection of data (1888 and 1899) on 

 the time of year at which the various animals in the Bay of Naples reach 

 sexual maturity. His very valuable memoir refers to a large number of 

 types, from Sponges to Fishes. 



Former Land Bridge between Northern Europe and North 

 America.t — R. F. Scharff states some of the evidences of this — partly 

 geological, partly bathymetrical, partly distributional. Thus there are 

 some animals which occur in Europe and North America, but not in 

 Asia, such as the fresh-water sponges Ephydatia crater if or mis, Hetcro- 

 meyenia ryderi, Tubella pennsylvanica ; the beetles Carabus eaten ulatus, 

 C. nemoralis, 0. groznlandicus and G. chamissoni ; and a number of Col- 

 lembola. Twelve species of Lepidoptera common to Europe and North 

 America are absent from Asia, and the family of Percidse are absent 

 from Western North America and Eastern Asia. The distribution of 

 Helix hortensis is interesting, for it occurs in Great Britain, Ireland, 

 Greenland, and some localities in North America. 



Tunicata. 



Antarctic Tunicata. :}: — W. A. Herdman reports on a collection of 

 about twenty-two species from the sea area south of 60° S. Two species 

 of Styeia, one of Halocynthia, one of Boltenia, four of Molgulida? and 

 two compound Ascidians are new to science. The collection confirms 

 the view which Professor Herdman has previously expressed, that the 

 Ascidian fauna of the far South is characterised by the abundance and 

 the large size of the individuals of a comparatively small number of 

 species. In the present collection, made by the ' Discovery,' there are 

 specimens of Styeia spectabilis 18 cm. in length, of Molgula hodgsoni of 

 4 cm., of Halocynthia setosa of 10 cm., and so on. 



INVERTEBRATA. 



Mollusca. 

 a. Cephalopoda. 



So-called Olfactory Organ in Cephalopods.§— Grace B. Watkinson 

 has studied the olfactory organs in Sepia, Loligo, Octopus, and other forms. 



* MT. Zool. Stat. Neapel, xix. (1909) pp. 513-761. 



t Proc. R. Irish Acad., xxviii. (1909) No. 1, pp. 1-28 (1 fig. and 3 maps). 

 % National Antarctic Expedition, Nat. Hist., v. (1910) pp. 1-26 (7 pis.). 

 § Jen. Zeitschr. f. Natur., xliv. (1909) pp. 353-414 (2 pis. and 47 figs.). 



