174 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



it deserves a distinctive name. The rachis (70 mm.) is only slightly 

 longer than the stalk (7.5 mm.) ; the broadest region, near the rounded 

 apex, is almost equal to its length. There are thirty pairs of rather 

 thick and fleshy pinnules, each with a single undulating metarachidian 

 row of autozooids (cf. four to five rows on each face of the pinnule in 

 the Australian species). The siphonozooids form a conspicuous cushion- 

 like thickening on the proximal region of the prorachidian edge of the 

 pinnule ; this cushion just passes over on to the upper surface, but on 

 the lower surface of the pinnule it forms a very marked " basal " plate 

 which reaches the metarachidian margin. 



Coelentera from the Spanish Coast.* — Jose Rioja y Martin com- 

 municates, an annotated list of the Coelentera in the collection of the 

 Biological Station at Santander. Thus, to select the Alcyonacea, he 

 records Alcyonium palmatum, A. diffifatum {?), A. glomeratum, Fteroeides 

 griseum. Ft. spinulosiis, Pennatida phosphorea, P. rubra, Kophohelemnon 

 sp., Funicidina quadrangidaris, VeretiUum cynomorium, Gorgonia verru- 

 cosa, G. cavolinii, Murlcea chamceleon, M. echinata, Gorgonella sarmentosa. 

 His list will be of use in faunistic studies. 



Porifera. 



Larvae of Hircinia variabilis.f—E. Hammer describes the barrel- 

 shaped, free-swimming larvfe, with a dermal layer of elongated, narrow^ 

 flagellate cells entirely inclosing an internal cell-mass. Peculiar bodies, 

 apparently containing chromatin, were found in the interior of the larvae, 

 and resembled the heads of the peculiar filaments of the adult sponge. 



Protozoa. 



Thalassothamnidse.J — V. Haecker concludes that Schroder's Gyto- 

 cladus and a new genus Thalassothamiius require the establishment of a 

 new family (Thalassothamnidfe) of deep-sea Radiolarians. The family 

 should be included in Brandt's order Oollidae, near Haeckel's Oros- 

 phferidfe. In the two genera mentioned only one " double-spicule " is 

 differentiated. In Thalassothamnus the nodal points of the double 

 spicule are usually separate ; the central capsule is spherical or bulged 

 out by the radial spines. In Gytodadus the nodal points of the double 

 spicule are fused ; the central capsule is dendriform or branched. 



From the ' Valdivia ' material Haecker has obtained three species of 

 a remarkable new genus, Astracnntha, which also requires a new family, 

 Astracanthidte. They have delicate stellate skeletons with 15-40 radial 

 spines, which are hollow and spinose or bear dichotomous branches, and 

 have their inner ends abutting against one another in the centre. There 

 are always two central capsules, with typical astropyle and a long 

 " proboscis." The family should be placed between Aulacanthidas and 

 Aulosphferidfe. 



* Bol. Soc. Espan. Hist. Nat., vi. (1906) pp. 275-81. 



t SB. Ges. Nat. Freunde Berlin (1906) No. 6, 6 pp. (1 pi.). See also Zool. 

 Zentralbl., xiii. (1906) pp. 631-2. 



X Zool. Anzeig., xxx. (1906) pp. 878-95 (16 figs.). 



