308 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



proboscis ; that it may be that the pericardium is a metameric structure, 

 and that the periha3mal (coelomic) canals of the collar represent the 

 pericardium of the second segment. 



Rotifera! 



Intestinal Absorption and Formation of Reserve Material in 

 Rotifera.* — P. de Beauchamp, having studied these subjects in 

 Hydatina senta, comes to the conclusion that, in addition to fat 

 globules, there are formed, when food is abundant, proteid granules 

 which are stored in the cells of the stomach, and also glycogen stored in 

 the hypodermic cells of the rotatory organ, in the muscle-cells, and in 

 the maturing ova. All these reserve materials are absorbed again 

 during fasting. 



Rotifera of the Scottish Lochs.t — James Murray gives an account 

 of 177 species collected by him during the work of the Scotch lake 

 survey in a large number of lochs. The author points out that this list 

 is by no means an exhaustive one, as no doubt many more species could 

 have been added if all the lakes had been searched more thoroughly by 

 a few specialists. The principal forms occurring in the various regions 

 of the lakes — pelagic, littoral, and abyssal regions — are examined and 

 compared with the forms occurring in similar situations in other 

 countries. Finally, notes on some of the species and descriptions of six 

 new species are added, namely : Philodina hamata ; Callidina longieejjs ; 

 Callidina habita var. bullata ; Callidina natans, by the author ; Philodina 

 Jiaviceps, by James Bryce ; and Kotommata pumila, by C. F. Rousselet. 

 Six plates accompany this memoir. 



South American Rotifers. J: — James Mun'ay enumerates 13 species 

 of Bdelloid Rotifers obtained from dried moss collected in British 

 Guiana, amongst which are two new species : Callidina tripus and Calli- 

 dina speciosa, and two new varieties : Callidina perforata var. americana 

 and Callidina multispinosa var. crassispinosa, all of which are figured 

 and described, 



Echinoderma. 



Spicule-formation in Echinoderms.S^W. "Woodland has studied 

 Amphiura eleyans, Ophioihrix frayilis, Echinus esculentus, Synapta 

 Jiispida and S. diyitata, and Antedon bifida, with reference to the 

 formation of spicules. 



In Ophiuroidea, Asteroidea, Echinoidea, and Crinoidea the typical 

 mode of scleroblastic development of the spicules is that which the 

 author describes in detail for Amphiura eleyans, i.e. the spicule 

 originates as a triradiate structure contained within a single cell. The 

 typical mode of development of the plates of Holothuroidea is that 

 described by the author for Cucumariidfe, viz. the origin of the 

 elongated calcareous needle between two or four cells, its growth to form 



♦ Comptes Rendus, cxliv. (1907) pp. 524-5. 



t Trans. Rov. Soc. Edinburgh, xlv. part 1, No. 7 (1906) pp. 151-91 (6 pis.). 



X Amer. Nat., xli. (1907) pp. 97-101. 



§ Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., li. (1907) pp. -31-43 (2 pis.). 



