54 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



New Species of Cucumaria.* — R. P. Cowles describes Cucumcnria 

 curata sp. n., from the Californian coast. Many individuals are usually 

 seen together, in the breeding season at least, forming black patches 

 just below low-tide mark. The species is of especial interest on account 

 of the care of the eggs and young. As soon as the eggs are laid they 

 are transferred, probably by means of the tentacles, to the ventral 

 surface of the body, and are kept there until they develop into young 

 forms several millimetres in length. The eggs are large, almost 1 mm. 

 in diameter. Associated with the Holothurian during the breeding 

 season there is a small Nematode which feeds upon the eggs, often de- 

 stroying the whole brood. 



Coelentera. 



Madreporaria from Amboina.t — M. Bedot has done good service 

 to students of Madreporarian corals by publishing not only full descrip- 

 tions, but abundant beautiful illustrations, of a large collection (79 

 species) of Madreporaria from Amboina. 



Rare British Coral.| — W. A. Herdman dredged from the Train 

 bank, 8 miles off Port Erin, a distinctly rare British coral, Paracyathus 

 pteropus. It was described by Gosse from a specimen found attached to 

 a shell of Cyprina from the deepest part of the Moray Firth, but as the 

 soft parts were unknown to Gosse, a brief description of the Isle of 

 Man specimen was drawn up from the living specimen by Chadwick. 

 The column is cylindrical, not much higher than the corallum ; the 

 disk is flat, or very slightly raised in the centre, without distinct margin ; 

 the tentacles are 28 in number, arranged in two alternating circlets, 

 the stem is tapering, membranous, studded with numerous wans 

 (cnidophores ?), the head is sub-globular and opaque ; the mouth is a 

 lengthened and very mobile slit, with crenulate lips ; the colour of the 

 column, disk, and tentacles is transparent white, and a broad vandyked 

 band of vivid emerald green surrounds the mouth ; the diameter of the 

 corallum is 3 mm. 



Statoblasts in a Scyphistoma.§ — E. Herouard has found in a 

 Scyphistoma at Roscoff (like Dalzell's " Hydra-tuba "), encysted buds 

 "with a latent life and representing veritable statoblasts." They are 

 formed on the pedal disk and are inclosed in a chitinous envelope. If 

 the envelope be burst, the bud begins to proliferate and forms a polyp. 

 The " statoblasts " are formed during a resting period, and the time 

 necessary is about 15 days. After a statoblast is formed, the polyp 

 moves a short distance on its " pedal sole," leaving the statoblast 

 behind. After coming to rest again, the polyp forms a new statoblast. 



Revision of Medusa? Belonging to the Family Laodiceidae. || 

 E. T. Browne includes in this re-defined family the following genera : 



* Johns Hopkins Univ. Circular, No. 3 (1907) pp. 8-9 (2 pis.). 



f Rev. Suisse Zool., xv. (1907) pp. 143-292 (46 pis.). 



\ Liverpool Biol. Committee, 21st Rep., 1907, pp. 24-5. 



§ Comptes Rendus, cxlv. (1907) pp. 601-3. 



II Ann. Nat. Hist., xx. (1907) pp. 457-80. 



