260 KECORD OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



the vessels appear to be formed from the vasoformator cells of the 

 connective tissue, some of wliicli cells are converted into hfemoglobin. 

 When such a cell loses its fusiform appearance and becomes free, it 

 constitutes a red blood-corpuscle ; if it gives up its hcemoglobin to 

 the plasma it preserves its ordinary character, and the plasma becomes 

 red. 



Unobserved Organ in Sapphirina.* — Dr. Ficker describes an 

 abdominal organ which, placed in an internal canal and invested by a 

 T)rotoplasmic coat, opens to the exterior by a vesicular enlargement at 

 the hinder edge of the furca. Placed at the sides of the enteric tract 

 and paired, it has the same character in both males and females. It 

 generally commences in the third abdominal segment, and appears to 

 have its canal enclosed in a syncytium containing clear nuclei and 

 large nucleoli. The author is of opinion that these glands have a 

 secreting function, but as he has no physiological evidence to offer, he 

 follows the advice of Professor Leuckart, and aj)plies to them the name 

 oi f ureal glands. Further observations are necessary to show whether 

 they are or are not confined to the SappJdrina, or are to be found in 

 other Copepoda also. 



Ostracoda in Tree-tops.t — Dr. Fritz Miiller points out that it is 

 not altogether to be wondered at that the Bromeliacese, considering the 

 many hiding-places and the abundant supplies of food furnished by 

 their leaves, should harbour a host of animals, including larvae of 

 insects, all stages of the beetles peculiar to them, and even tadpoles 

 of tree-frogs which here pass through their transformations. 



But a much more extraordinary fact is the occurrence in the tops 

 of these plants of a minute crustacean, to be called Elpidium Bromeli- 

 arum, whose allies are chiefly marine forms. The species for which 

 the author has established this genus — named after Elpe pinguis of 

 Barrande, from the Silurian rocks, and resembling it entirely in 

 form, though not in size — belongs to the Cytheridfe, essentially a 

 marine group. In external appearance it differs remarkably from the 

 other members of the family ; the breadth of the shell is much greater 

 than its height, and the ventral side is flat and the valves cleft on this 

 side by a longitudinal furrow, the tout ensemble being that of a 

 coffee bean: the length is about 1"5 mm. The shape of the shell 

 adapts it for moving along the smooth broad leaves and for alighting 

 on its lower surface after ialling, a purpose served in the other Oythe- 

 ridae by the flattening of the lateral surfaces. Elpidium is found 

 to as far as 60 miles inland, and its transmission from tree to tree 

 must be due, not to its own efforts but to beetles (Agahus, Hister, 

 &c.) ; which may well be, as the yoimg on leaving the mother are 

 only • 2 mm. long ; but the fact of almost every Bromelia containing 

 these animals is startling, seeing that they thus appear to owe 

 their presence there to chance alone. It has hitherto been taken in 

 no other position, although the neighbouring pools contain a variety 

 of other Crustacea (as Cyclops, Cypris, Chydorus, &c.), so that the 

 Sromeltce seem to constitute its only locality. 



* ' Zool. Anzeiger,' ii. (1879) p. 515. t ' Kosmos,' iii. (1880) p. 386. 



