ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 319 



although most authors have ascribed a glandular or secretory function to 

 thern, it seems likely that they form an indifferent embryonic tissue 

 which develops into specialised tissues as the worm increases in size. 



Tapeworms of North American Birds.* — B. H. Ransom deals with 

 about 140 species of Tamioid Cestodes which have been reported from 

 North American birds. These represent nearly forty genera, such as 

 Davainea, Liga, Rhaidometra, Hymenolepis, and Diorchis. A key for 

 identification is given, and the parasites are arranged not only systema- 

 tically, but also according to their hosts. It may be noted that the 

 Teenioid Cestodes are characterised primarily by the presence of four 

 cup-shaped suckers upon the head, and form a natural group, classed 

 by some authorities as a superfamily, Tajnioidea, by others as an order, 

 Cyclophyllidea. 



Entozoa of Monotremes and Marsupials.f — T. Harvey Johnston 

 gives a list of parasites, chiefly Cestodes, in various Monotreme and 

 Marsupial hosts. Platypus yields a species of Distomum ; the Echidna 

 yields Linstowia echidnse (Thompson) ; the kangaroo, llacrojms giganteus, 

 yields Moniezia /estiva (Rud.), Echinocoecus polymorphus Dies., Distomum 

 hepaticum, and Filar ia ivebsteri ; and so on. 



Regeneration in Nemerteans.J — J. Nusbaum and M. Oxner have 

 studied this in Lineus ruber, and find that anterior parts can re-grow all 

 the posterior organs. Posterior parts of the broader form of the species 

 show little power of regenerating the head, while in the narrower form 

 complete regeneration (ganglia included) is common. In the regenera- 

 tion of the gut, the old gut plays no part ; the new growth is due to 

 de-differentiation of the elements of the wall of the rhynchocoelom. Old 

 portions of the body are disrupted, and migrant cells supply material for 

 the new histogenesis. 



Nemerteans from Eastern Indian Ocean. § — R. C. Punnett and C. 

 Forster Cooper report on twenty species, e.g. the following new species,. 

 Drep>anophorus indiciis, Baseodiscus insignis, B. sordidus, B. longissimus, 

 Lineus mascarensis, L. hancochi, L. indicus, L. crosslandi, L. orientalis, 

 Cerebratidus midtiporatus, and C. zebra. A useful aid to the determina- 

 tion of species of Lineus and Cerebratidus is given in a table. The 

 collection is remarkable for the presence of a species of Tubidanus — a 

 genus not hitherto represented among any of the collections from the 

 Indian Ocean. It is shown that the highly specialised Diplopleura — 

 undoubtedly one of the most recent productions of the Lineid family — 

 extends right across the Indian Ocean, finding its way eastwards to 

 Japan and New Florida, and pushing up on the west into the Red Sea 

 and the Mediterranean. 



Protective Ency station of Fresh-water Nemertean.|| — Paul Hallez 

 describes how Prostoma lumbricoideum Dusres behaves when the water 



*■»' 



* U.S. Nat. Museum, Bull. 60 (1909) pp. 1-141 (42 figs.)/ 



t Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., xxxiv. (1909) pp. 514-23. 



% Bull. Internat. Acad. Sci. Cracovie, 1910, pp. 1-11 (1 pi.). 



§ Trans. Linn. Soc. Zool., xiii. (1909) pp. 1-15 (2 pis. and 1 map). 



|| Comptes Rendus, cl. (1910) pp. 481-2. 



