ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 309 



Antarctic Copepods.*- A. Quidor makes a brief report on the 

 Oopepods collected by Charcot on the ' Francois ' Antarctic Expedition. 

 Besides several forms obtained by the ' Belgica,' the ' Francois ' Expe- 

 dition obtained a number of interesting new species, e.g. Phyllopas 

 turgueti, Porcellidum charcoti, P. affirm, and Anchorella intermedin. 



Annulata. 



(Esophageal Pouches in Polygordius and Saccocirrus.f — W. 



Salensky reports the interesting fact that in these primitive forms there 

 are two pairs of diverticula from the gullet, which open independently 

 to the exterior. The anterior pair are grooves, not well-defined pouches, 

 but their relations with gut are precisely similar to those of the posterior 

 pouches. Both may be regarded as homologous with the gill-pouches of 

 Balanoglossus and Chordata. This affords another argument for the 

 thesis that Vertebrates are derived from Annelids. 



Red Sea PolychaBts.^ — Ch. G-ravier makes a note on the collection of 

 Polychasts made by Jousseaume, Coutiere, and himself, from the Bed 

 Sea. It includes 116 species (70 new) in 6G genera (5 new), and when 

 those previously described are counted in, a total of about 170 species is 

 reached. Most noteworthy is the dependence on the Indian Ocean 

 Polychait fauna, but some of the Red Sea species are also known from 

 the western coast of Africa. A number of Atlantic and Mediterranean 

 forms have, so to speak, surrounded the African coast, both east and 

 west. Even for relatively sedentary animals, the " zoological provinces " 

 are seen to fuse more and more as our faunistic knowledge increases. 



Peculiar Regenerative Process in Potamilla.§— Arnold T. "Watson 

 has made the interesting observation that portions of a rock-boring 

 species of Potamilla, bereft of head and thorax, and consisting of abdo- 

 minal segments only, exhibited a power of economising labour and 

 material by changing the arrangement of certain of the old parts, so as 

 to complete the model of the original animal. Besides the cephalic 

 plume-bearing segment, one new setigerous thoracic segment only was 

 formed, but the chastal plan of the succeeding five or nine abdominal 

 segments was changed ; the dorsal uncini in these segments first dis- 

 appeared and gave place to seta3, and later the ventral seta? were replaced 

 by uncini ; the new seta? and uncini, moreover, were changed to the 

 forms characteristic of this part of the body. In other words, so far as 

 the chffital plan is concerned, a new thorax was constructed from the old 

 abdomen. In another case (Sabella ■pavonina) the number of abdominal 

 segments transformed corresponded exactly with that of the thoracic 

 region of the worm from which the abdominal segments were excised. 

 The author also calls attention to the fact that the worms can them- 

 selves provide ligatures and so sever the body at any given point. 



* Comptes Rendus, cxlii. (1906) pp. 54-6. 

 t Biol. Centralbl., xxvi. (1906) pp. 199-204 (3 figs.). 



% Comptes Rendus, cxlii. (1906) pp. 410-12. See also Nouvelles Archives du 

 Museum, 1900, 1901, 1906 (18 pis. and 495 figs.). 



§ Proc. Roy. Soc, series B, lxxvii. No. B518 (1906) pp. 332-6 (4 figs.). 



