32 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Helminthological Studies.* — M. Kowalewski continues his helmin- 

 thological researches, and describes Hymenol&pis arcuata from the 

 intestine of Fuligula mania, and H. parvula from the common duck. 



Rotatoria. 



Male of Eosphora digitata.f — P. de Beauchamp describes the 

 structure of this male, which is remarkable in being less degenerate 

 than usual. Its form is like that of the female, its size is not much 

 less. Its corona, brain, foot, muscles, excretory canals, etc., are very 

 like those of the female. The gut is a cul-de-sac without mastax, with 

 only two regions, quite empty, probably non-functional. In the 

 posterior half of the body lay the large globular testis, containing 

 numerous spermatozoa of large size. This male was previously seen, 

 but not described, by C. F. Rousselet. 



Incertee Sedis. 



New Brachiopod.J — Stuart Weller describes a Paraphorhynchus, a 

 new genus of Brachiopods from the Kinderhook fauna of the Mississippi 

 Valley. The genus is established to include some rather large, coarsely 

 plicate, Rhynchonelloid shells, usually with simple plications, and with 

 the entire surface covered with very fine radiating strise. 



Oscillating Circulation in Phoronis.§ — P. Enriques describes what 

 he calls the oscillating circulation in Phoronis psammophila, the blood 

 showing what may be called a rapid ebb and flow first in one direction 

 and then in the other within the vessels — an apparently unique 

 phenomenon. 



Young Discinisca.|| — N. Yatsu brings forward additional evidence 

 to show that the structure in the larval Brachiopod Discinisca which 

 Blochmann maintains to be the nephridium is really the otocyst or 

 statocyst. There is a distinct pair of nephridia, probably appearing 

 about the stage with five pairs of cirri. Anteriorly they open near the 

 lateral ganglia, and run along the ventral body-wall. Posteriorly they 

 dilate into funnels, which are suspended by the ileo-parietal bands. 

 The otocysts are small and inconspicuous as compared with those of 

 Lingula of the same stage, and it is probable that their precocious 

 diminution in size is correlated with an earlier attachment of the larva. 



Echinoderma. 



Axial Organ and Ventral Blood Spaces in Asterids.lf — Viktor 

 Pietschmann has studied the difficult problem of these structures in 

 starfishes, and has come to the following conclusions : 



1. The axial organ, a local proliferation of (he interbrachial septum, 

 consists of three' parts histologically and functionally different : (a) The 



* Bull. Intemat. Acad. Sci. Gracovie, 1905, pp. 532-4 (1 pi.), 

 t Arch. Zool. Exper., iii. (1905) pp. ccxxv.-ccxxxiii. (3 figs.). 

 % Trans. Acad. Sci. St. Louis, xv. (1905) pp. 259-64 (1 pi. and 7 figs.). 

 § Atti R. Accad. Lincei Roma, xiv. (1905) pp. 451-4. 

 || Zool. Anzeig., xxix. (1905) pp. 561-3 (2 figs.). 

 «f Arbeit. Zool. Inst. Univ. Wien, xvi. (1905) pp. 63-86 (2 pis. and 5 figs.). 



