304 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Holothyrids.* — Karel Thon has studied Holothyrus braueri sp. n., 

 a representative of the poisonous Acarina (Holothyridge) from islands in 

 the Indian Ocean. It is uncertain whence the poisonous secretion 

 comes, but the author gives reasons in favour of referring it to the pedal 

 glands on the third appendage. He describes the whole glandular 

 system — the cheliceral, maxillary, pedal, coxal, and crural glands. The 

 simple crural glands, like those of Peripatus, are new discoveries. He 

 regards Holothyrus as a highly developed form on a phyletically young 

 twig of the Acarine stem, and the segmental disposition of the anterior 

 portions of the body as a secondary acquisition. 



Notes on Structure of Ixodes.! — A. Bonnet describes (1) the 

 apparently sensory " porous area," a paired finely punctate depression 

 on the dorsal surface towards the base of the rostrum in females only ; 

 (2) the simple eyes which are marked by the thickness of the cornea, 

 the black pigment in the crystalline lens, the absence of pigment between 

 the retinal cells and on the margin of the vitreous body, and by the large 

 size of the nerve-cells ; (3) the pyriform poison-cells included in the 

 salivary glands. 



Tick Fever in Congo Free State.J — R. Newstead gives notes on the 

 distribution, bionomics, and external features of Ornithodoros moubata, 

 the carrier of the parasite — probably Spirochmta ober meter i — of tick 

 fever. Ornithodoros is not simply a mechanical carrier, but acts as host, 

 the spirochete undergoing development within it. It is pointed out 

 that the adult female of this species may be easily distinguished from 

 0. savigny not only by the absence of the eyes (Pocock's test), but also 

 by the presence of an inner two-toothed apophysis and the apparently 

 narrower basis of the hypostome. Details regarding the metamorphosis 

 and egg laying are also given. 



Feeding Habits of Pycnogonids.§ — Leon J. Cole has studied Ano- 

 plodactylus lenti/s, abundant at Woods Hole on Eudmdrinm ramosum. It 

 has always been the natural inference that the Pycnogonid obtained its 

 food from the hydroid ; the author found that it probably does not 

 suck the juices of the hydroids at all, but was observed eating off the 

 hydranths. When the Pycnogonid came into contact with a hydroid 

 head, the latter was firmly seized with the chelaj, and appeared to be forced 

 slowly into the mouth. The Pycnogonid then pulled till the hydranth 

 broke off, when it was gradually consumed, the chelifori aiding in the 

 process by helping to force the hydranth into the mouth. Sometimes 

 the hydranth was broken up more or less by the chelse, and the pieces 

 then appeared to be sucked in. 



Antarctic Pycnogonids. || — E. L. Bouvier discusses the Pycnogonids 

 collected by Jean Charcot on the ' Francais ' Antarctic Expedition. 

 1. Decapod Pycnogonids seem to be abundantly represented in 



* SB. k. Bohni. Ges. Wiss., x. (1905) pp. 1-41 (2 pis.), 

 t Comptes Rendus, cxlii. (1906) pp. 296-8. 



% Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Memoir xvii. (2 pis.). See also Cen- 

 tralbl. Bakt. Parasit., xxxviii. (1906) pp. 9-10. 

 § Zool. Anzeig., xxix. (1906) pp. 740-1. 

 || Comptes Rendus, cxlii. (1906) pp. 15-22. 



