356 BtJMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Molluscs of Ireland.* — A. W. Stelfox gives a list of the land and 

 fresh-water molluscs of Ireland, with an account of the distribution of 

 each species, about 130 in all. Introduced species are also dealt with, 

 and there is a careful bibliography. Fourteen land and fifteen fresh- 

 water species which are known to live in Britain are still unrecorded for 

 Ireland. 



7« Gastropoda. 



Cavernicolous Gastropods.! — L. Germain discusses numerous species 

 of Hyalinia, Pyramidula, Helix, Pupa, Ferussacia, Csecilioides, Physa, 

 Ancylus, Bythinella, and Lartertia. While the genera Zospeum and 

 Speleeoconcha are the only terrestrial Molluscs which are exclusively 

 cavernicolous, there are many species of other genera, such as those 

 named above, which are found oftener in caves than elsewhere. 



Phylogeny of Cerithiidse. J— Elvira Wood traces the probable evo- 

 lution of some of the Cerithiidas— Cerithium, Vulyocerithium, Tympano- 

 notus, Potamides, and Potamidopsis. It appears that the Jurassic species, 

 Cerithium corallense, may represent the earliest known species of the 

 genus. It has a primitive type of shell of small size, with rounded 

 whorls, and having on its adult volutions three spirals crossed by ribs. 

 The ancestor of this probably possessed a bicarinate ornamentation 

 crossed by ribs and a very slightly developed canal. The genus Cerithium 

 includes a great variety of forms ; but notwithstanding the wide differ- 

 ences in adults, relationship may be traced by similarity in the young 

 stages, pointing out the path of evolution which all have travelled. 



5. Lamellibranchiata. 



Reaction of Tissues of Pecten to Implantation of Foreign Bodies.§ 

 G. H. Brew and W. De Morgan found that the implantation of a piece 

 of gill or gland, or of sterile agar jelly, into the muscle of Pecten maxi- 

 mus was followed by multiplication and migration of fibroblasts in the 

 vicinity. In the case of the piece of gill, a layer of typical "scar" 

 fibrous tissue is formed, enclosing the chitinous skeletons of the gill- 

 bars (all that remains after a thorough cleaning up by phagocytes). No 

 permanent layer was formed round the piece of gland, as the migrated 

 fibroblasts are dissolved in the course of the extension of the sphere of 

 action of the digestive ferments. In the case of the agar jelly there is a 

 slow and often mitotic division of the neighbouring fibroblasts ; they 

 migrate and rearrange themselves to form a thin layer of fibrous tissue 

 around the agar. The whole process of fibrous tissue formation is 

 essentially like that which takes place in Vertebrates, though the tissues 

 and the blood and its manner of forming a " clot " are so different. 



Arthropoda. 

 a. Insecta. 



Mimicry of Ant by Larval Mantis.]]— R. I. Pocock describes the 

 larvae of a species of mantis from the Gold Coast. They were 4 mm. or 



* Proc. Irish Acad., xxix. (1911) pp. 65-164 (1 pi.). 



t Arch. Zool. Exper., vi. (1911) pp. 229-56 (2 pis.). 



X Ann. New York Acad. Sci., xx. (1910) pp. 1-92 (9 pis.). 



§ Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., lv. (1910) pp. 595-610 (1 pi.). 



|| Proc. Zool. Soc. (1910) pp. 837-40 (2 rigs.). 



