682 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



of the scleroplasm is determined by the growth of the spicule itself. 

 The heavy wheel and globe spicules weight the lower extremity of the 

 .larva, and determine the position it assumes in the water. 



North Pacific Holothurians.* — C. Lincoln Edwards describes a 

 collection from the North Pacific coast of North America. Eleven 

 species are dealt with, their recorded habitats are enumerated, and a 

 note of the literature bearing upon them is appended. Only one new 

 form occurred in the collection, Chirodota albatrossi sp. n. In many 

 respects it resembles G. Icevis Fabr., but the presence of rods in the 

 anterior part of the body-wall, the greater size of the body, and the 

 larger number of wheel-papillae constitute difi'erential characters marking 

 a new species. 



Memoir on Antedon.t — H. 0. Chadwick provides a memoir on this 

 animal, in which he discusses the external characters, skeleton, muscles, 

 ligaments, sacculi, digestive system, blood- vascular or lacunar system, 

 coelom, chambered and axial organs, water-vascular system, nervous 

 system, and genital organs. Notes are also given on development, 

 regeneraton, and on parasites. 



Studies in Spicule-formation.| — W. Woodland, in a series of papers, 

 deals with the scleroblastic development of the spicules in Ophiuroidea, 

 Echinoidea, in the genera Antedon and Synapta, in some Mollusca, and 

 in one genus of Colonial Ascidians, viz. Leptoclimim. 



Coelentera. 



New Tropical C(Elenterate.§ — D. Pedaschenko describes an in- 

 teresting Cffilenterate which he found upon the south-west coast of 

 Java. It is from 1-1 • 5 mm. long and has complicated outgrowths. 

 The real body consists of an upper oral end and of an aboral funnel 

 with a knob-shaped sense-organ at the end. The oral region is laterally 

 compressed, it carries two pear-shaped tentacle sheaths from which arise 

 on each side two tube-shaped main branches. These are forked, and 

 each hmb ends in a vertically placed elliptical body. Only one of the 

 specimens secured was active, and it swam with the oral pole directed 

 upward. The structure is that of a Ctenophore, resembling Cydippe ; 

 swimming plates are absent, and on this account a special order is 

 formed for it, viz. Acten». The species is named Dogielia malayana. 



Variation in the Tentacles of Halocordyle cooperi Warren. || — 

 E. Warren has made a preliminary investigation on this subject. There 

 is considerable variation in the arrangement of the capitate tentacles, 

 but as the hydroid is comparatively rare sufficient material for a strict 



* 



Proc. U.S. Nat. Museum, Washington, xxxiii. (1907) pp. 49-68. 

 t Liverpool Marine Biol. Committee Memoirs, xv. (1907) pp. 1-47 (7 pis.). 

 : Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., li. (1907) pp. 31-43 (2 pis.) ; pp. 45-53 (1 pi.). 

 § Trav. Soc. Imp. Nat., St. P^tersbourg, xxxvii. (1906), 26 pp., 3 pis. See 

 also Zool. Central bl., xiv. (1907) pp. 65-8. 



11 Annals Natal Govt. Museum, i. (1907) pt. 2, pp. 209-13. 



