ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 307 



amongst the families of birds. It forms with the genera Aploparaxsis 

 Clerc, Diorchis Clerc, and Oligorchis Fuhrmann a very natural group, 

 which constitutes a sub-family of the Cyclophyllidfe. The diagnoses of 

 this sub-family and the genera comprising it are given. 



Helminthological Notes from Brazil.* — P. S. de Magalhaes 

 describes the cysticercus of Ticnia canmta. The adult is found in 

 the intestine of fowls in Rio de Janeiro, the cysticercus occurs in large 

 numbers in an Oligochfete of the genus Pheritima. The cysticerci have 

 a double-walled capsule, the inner layer of which consists of a single 

 stratum of large cells. They have no tail appendage, and possess a 

 simple circlet of 12-14 hooks. In the same species of Pheritima, but 

 less frequently, there occurs another tailless cysticercus, which is divided 

 by a constriction into two parts, and which has a simple rosette of 18 

 needle-like hooks. Also, there occurs in Pheritima a small Nematode, 

 Synoecnema fragile, g. et sp. n. They are found free in the body- 

 cavity of the host, the two sexes being joined pair-wise. The eggs 

 possess stiff cilia, are elliptical, and measure 40-280 /a. 



New Species of Acanthocotyle.t — V. Willem describes Acanthocotyh 

 branchialis sp. n. from the gill-chamber of a ray caught off the coast of 

 Belgium, and points out how it differs from the three known species — 

 A. lohiancoi, A. elegans, and A. olir/oterus. He also reports on Distomum 

 turgidam Brandes lodged in an evagination of the duodenum of the 

 frog, with its mouth away from the gut. This form is new to 

 Belgium. 



Vital Rhythm of Convoluta.| — Georges Bohn finds that the 

 oscillations of Convoluta in an aquarium, as on the shore, become less 

 and less marked at the time of neap-tide, and are accelerated at spring- 

 tide, though this contrast may be affected by variations in illumination. 

 In the aquarium, as on the shore, the emergence from the sand begins 

 between 8 hours 40 minutes and 5 hours before the low tide, and lasts 

 for about two hours. 



Incertee Sedis. 



Pericardial Vesicle of Enteropneusta.§ — C. Dawydoff has studied 

 the development of the cardio-pericardial structures in the regenerating 

 proboscis of Ptgchodera miauta Ivow., and comes to the conclusion that 

 the pericardial vesicle cannot be regarded as the equivalent of a half of 

 the proboscis ccelom ; that it is primarily a paired structure ; that in 

 "atavistic" cases there are two vesicles, one arising from each half of 

 the ccelomic cavity of the proboscis, that these vesicles are homologous 

 with the pericardial vesicles of Molluscs and Tunicates; that it is 

 possible that the pericardium of the Enteropneust proboscis owes its 

 origin to a constricting off of the distal ends of procardiac tubes (in 

 ancestral forms) penetrating into the interior of the stalk of the 



♦ Arch, de Parasitol., ix. (1905) pp. 30.5-18. See also Centralbl. Bakt. Para- 

 sitenk., Ref., xxxviii. (1906) p. 772. 



+ Bull. Acad. R. Belgique (Classe des Sciences), No. 8 (1906) pp. 599-612 (1 pi.). 

 X C.R. Soc. Biol. Paris, Ixii. (1907) pp. 51-2. 

 § Zool. Anzeig., xxxi. (1907) pp. 352-62 (7 figs.). 



