Nova Acta Academie Nature Curiosorum. 479 
The last communication which offers a particular interest to the 
entomologist, relates to the “ Ixodes ophtophilus, eme neue Zecken-art, 
‘* auf einer Schlange gefunden und beschrieben von Dr. Johannes 
«< Miiller.”” It contains a full description, accompanied by figures, of 
a new tick, found imbedded in the skin of the nose of a species of 
Dipsas, and closely resembling the figure given by Seba of a similar 
parasite observed by him insinuated between the scales of an American 
snake. That other reptiles are equally infested with parasitic ticks, 
apparently belonging to the same genus, Ixodes, is manifest from 
HBermann’s having found similar specimens on the Testudo Greca, Spar- 
mann on an African species of Tortoise, Pallas on Crocodiles and Iguanas, 
and Fabricius on animals of the last named genus. Dr. Miller 
compares his species with the descriptions given by each of these authours, 
and points out the differences by which they are distinguished from it, 
and from each other. His generic character of the group is slightly 
modified from that given by Latreille. Incidentally he mentions that, of 
sixty colubrine snakes examined by him among the duplicates of the 
Bonn Museum, five specimens (belonging to four different species) were 
furnished with the grooved posterior teeth described by Schlegal, in his 
paper on that subject, published in the previous volume of the Transactions 
of the Academy, and noticed at page 378 of our present volume. 
Only one other paper connected with recent zoology remains to be 
noticed; it is from the pen of Dr. Tilesius, and is entitled <* Beitrage 
zur Naturgeschichte der Medusen.” The present section is limited to 
some general observations on the structure and relations of the Meduse 
in general, to an indication of the principles which influence their natural 
distribution into families, and to a detailed description of several species 
of Cassiopea ; but the learned authour proposes to follow up his subject 
by a series of papers treating of each of the other groups in succession. 
He considers them as the representatives of a large class of marine 
animals, to which he applies the common term, borrowed from Forskihl, 
of “ Animalia siphonizantia,” their predominating character consisting 
in the inhalation and expulsion of the water in which they live, by a 
more or less powerful, more or less regular, and more or less complete 
