576 RECORD OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



genus SiapJiyloeyslls : one siiccies, S. micracantJius, is nufloubtedly the 

 immature form of Tcenm j/isi ilium, parasitic on Sorc.v {Grucidura) 

 araneus : tlie tape-worm with which S. hilarius is connected is uncer- 

 tain, hut it is certainly nearly allied to T. scutujera (of Sorex tetra- 

 gonurus), and to T. scalaris (of ^S". araneus). 



Both species are found in the little myriapod Glomeris limhafus, 

 where they occur in clusters like grape-hunches on the outer surface 

 of the Malpighian tubules. Each cluster is a colony of bladder- 

 worms, and consists of a number of transparent ovoidal sacs, attached 

 by a short stalk at one end, and having at the otlier a short funnel- 

 like depression. Each sac is the caudal cyst of a cystic worm ; the 

 latter consisting, besides this vesicle, of a head and body. The 

 head is pi'ovided with four suckers and a circlet of hooks, and is 

 invaginated within the oval body, which represents the posterior 

 part of a scolex, and is itself invaginated into the caudal cyst, the 

 funnel-like depressions at the free extremity of which allow of the 

 extrusion of the head and body. 



Each colony proceeds, by a process of budding, from a simjile 

 vesicle or hlastogen, the result of the metamorphosis of an ovum of 

 Tamia. The ova, passed out of the body of the shrew with the 

 fasces, are taken in by the myriapod, and probably make their way 

 from the alimentary canal into the Malpighian tubes, finally pene- 

 trating the walls of the latter, and taking up their abode in the 

 surrounding adii)ose tissue. If the Glomeris is then eaten by a 

 shrew, the head and body are extruded from the caudal cyst, and 

 proglottides are formed by budding from the scolex in the usual 

 way. 



Besides its life-history, Villot gives an account of the histology of 

 Staj)hylocystes. 



Echinodermata. 



" Comet-forms " of Starfishes.*— The " corm theory " of Professor 

 Haeckel, according to which, as is well known, that distinguished 

 zoologist believes that it is alone possible to give any reasonable 

 explanation of the characters of the Echinoderms, is forcibly sup- 

 ported by the arguments and facts which he brings forward in a 

 paper under the above title. 



In the histoi'ical introduction he j)oints out that three explanations 

 have been given of the problem raised by the organization of the 

 adult Echinoderm ; the first, and earliest, was propounded by Cuvier, 

 who, insisting on the radiate character of their organization, placed 

 them with the Hydroida, the Medusfe, and the Ctcnophora ; the two 

 Professors Agassiz, father and son, have done their best to further 

 this view, and the Eussian zoologist Metschnikoff has not been 

 behind. In the year 1848, a year famous in the annals of zoology, as 

 being that in which Frey and Leuckart separated the Ccelenterata 

 from the rest of the " Radiate mob," a new view was taken, inasmuch 

 as these authors, more especially Leuckart, regarded the Echinoderms 

 as having their closest allies with the Worms, and especially with the 



* ' Zeitschr. wiss. Zonl.," xxs. (Suppl.) (1S7S) p. 424. 



