ZOOLOGY. 703 



knowledge, M. Vignier, has recently discussed the subject in the Revue 

 Philosophique, and published a memoir on the subject of the sense of 

 orientation and its organs, and he co-ordinates the faculty with a per- 

 ception or perceptibility of magnetic currents. (Jour. Franklin Inst., 

 vol. xv.) 



Influence of canals in extension of geographical range of species. — As was 

 naturally supposable, the Suez Canal has been the means of dispersing 

 various animals of the respective seas which it connects and effecting 

 a limited interchange of the two faunae. On the one hand, the JJmbrina 

 cirrlwsa (related to the king-fish 'of the United States) and the Labrax 

 lupus (a relation of the striped bass) have made their way through into 

 the Red Sea ; and, on the other, the Pristipoma stridens and Grenidens 

 ForskaM have passed from the Red Sea into the Mediterranean. With 

 these fishes invertebrates of various kinds have also passed and crossed 

 each other's way iuto the opposite seas. The many facts bearing on this 

 case have been recorded by Professor Keller, of Zurich. 



II. PROTOZOANS. 



Sporozoans. 



A peculiar Gregarinid. — A number of new forms of Gregariuidse have 

 been discovered aud examined by A. Schneider, and among them is one 

 of special interest. It was found in the digestive tube ot Glomeris, one 

 of the diplopod myriopods, and has been named Cnemidospora lutea. 

 " It is remarkable for the characters of its protomerite, the contents of 

 which are formed by two masses, distinguishable by various characters. 

 The lower has finely granular, the upper highly refractive, and appar- 

 ently fatty contents, and is of greenish aud not, as the others, of a yel- 

 low or brown color." (Arch. Zool. Exper. et Gen., vol. x, pp. 423, 450; 

 J. B. M. 8. (2), vol. in, p. 075). 



Rlvizopods. 



Endoparasitic Amoeba:. — Some interesting observations have been made 

 by Grassi on Aincebae parasitic in the Chastognathous worms. Six kinds 

 of Ohsetognaths are found in the straits of Messina, where that natural- 

 ist pursued his investigations, and in all of them Amoeba? of one kind 

 or another were found ; they were of two species — A. sagittoe (or chceto- 

 gnathi) and A. pigmentifera, a new species, aud chiefly harbored in the 

 caudal chamber and vasa deferentia (rarely in the coelom) of the adult 

 or adolescent sagittids, but not in the young. (The A. pigmentifera was 

 found in two species of Spadella.) The eudoplasm in both species of 

 Amoeba contains a number of granules which are considered to be of a 

 fatty nature, and these are supposed to constitute a reserve of nourish- 

 ment. Reproduction is effected by modification of the internal struct- 

 ure of the body, resulting in its breaking up in a number of corpuscules 



