ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 159 



Tunicata. 



Salpa and the Phylogeny of the Vertebrate Eye.*— M. M. Metcalf 

 criticises the views expressed by various writers on this subject. One 

 important error behind all attempts hitherto made to establish a relation- 

 ship is the failure to realise that Salpa has apparently been derived from 

 a sessile ancestor somewhat like the adult Ascidian, and not from a form 

 like Appendicularia. Nearly all the features of the anatomy of Salpa 

 point to this conclusion, and none more clearly than the condition and 

 development of its central nervous system. To one familiar with the 

 development of the eye of Salpa, any phylogenetic significance such as 

 has been suggested, seems impossible. 



New Salpoid from Japan. t — W. E. Ritter describes Gyclosalpa 

 retracta sp. n. The body is cylindrical, slightly smaller at the posterior 

 end, with a median ventral prominence into which the digestive tract 

 protrudes. The test is thin and transparent, the length is 7 • 5 cm., 

 both orifices are terminal. A straight intestine links this form to Gyclo- 

 salpa. There are 16 muscle bands, more than in any other known 

 Salpa, except S. tllesii-costata (18-20). But the most interesting thing 

 about the muscles is the fact that many of the bands are continuous 

 around the entire body — a fact which detracts considerably from the 

 value of the distinction between the Doliolidse (Cyclomyaria) and the 

 Salpidfe (Hemimyaria). 



British Tunicata. | — The second volume of the unfinished mono- 

 graph on British Tunicata 'by the late Joshua Alder and the late Albany 

 Hancock, edited by John Hopkinson, deals with the genera Giona and 

 Gorella in the family Ascidiadaj, and with the families Molgulidee, 

 Cynthiad*, and Clavelinidai. 



Japanese Ascidians.§— R. Hartmeyer describes a number of new 

 species, Molgala japoaica, Halocynthia comtna, sis species of Styela, two 

 species of Polycarpa, two species of Ascidia, and Ghelyosoma dofleini. 



Asajiro Oka || describes nine species of Halocynthia, of which six are 

 new ; also Microcosmus hartmeyerisp. n., Styela krobo/a sp. n., and Ghelyo- 

 soma siboja sp. n. 



INVERTEBRATA. 



Mollusca. 



a- Cephalopoda. 



Opisthoieuthis depressa.f — W. T. Meyer gives an anatomical de- 

 scription of this remarkable cuttlefish, belonging to the interesting^ 

 family Cirroteuthidfe, which have peculiar, thin, thread-like processes in 

 two rows on the arms to right and left of the suckers, and are also well 



* Anat Anzeig., xxix. (1906) pp. 526-8. 



+ Annot. Zool. Japon, vi. (1906) pp. 1-5 (2 figs.). 



X Ray Society, London, 1907, xxviii. and 164 pp., pis. 21-50. 



§ Zool. Anzeig., xxxi. (1906) pp. 1-30 (12 figs.). 



II Annot. Zool. Japon, vi. (1906) pp. 37-52. 



i Zeitschr. wiss. Zool., Ixxxv. (1906) pp. 188-269 (6 pis. and 16 figs.). 



