Miscellaneous, 327 



MTSCELLAXE(3US. 



A new case of Cure of tlw Brood in IlnJnthnriatis. (Provisional 

 Communication.) By Prof. IIuukkt Ludwio, of Bonn. 



Thk number of sea-cucumbers which care for their brood known 

 up to the present time amounts to seven, all of which belong either 

 to the Dendrochirotae or to the Synaptida). One species among 

 them — PhijJlojthorus vrna, Grube — utilizes the bod5'-cavity as a 

 brood-chamber, while iu the case of Cucumana crocea (Lesson) and 

 Psoitis t/)hippifer, \V. Thomson, the eggs undergo their development 

 upon the dorsum of the mother; in C'acumuria hmiijata (Verrill) 

 and Vucumaria (jlaclalis, Ljungnuui, on the other hand, development 

 takes place in special ventral brood-pouclies (invaginations of the 

 integument). VV^ith the exception of the Mediterranean Pliyllo- 

 2)horus unia, all these Dendrochirotae are arctic (Cucnmaria r/lacialis) 

 or antarctic iorms [Cucumaria crocea, C.lceviyata, Psoitis ephippifer). 

 In the case of the two Synaptida^ which care for the brood — >S>/najita 

 vivipara (QCrstedt) and Chiridota rotifera (Pourtales) — both of 

 which belong to the West-Atlantic marine region, the body-cavity 

 serves as brood-chamber ; herein these species resemble Phi/llo- 

 pJiorus urna. With reference to Stjaapta vivipara, Clark * has 

 recently furnished us with details of the development and care of 

 the brood, aftef I had previously given a brief notice t of the 

 gastrula-stage found by me in the body-cavity of this species. As 

 regards Chiridota rotifera, Ave possess only the fragmentary obser- 

 vations I published by myself iu 1881 J, 



That, however, there also exists an antarctic Chiridota in which 

 care of the brood is well-marked, I am now in a position to show. 

 The species in (juestion is Chiridota contorta, which was described 

 by myself iu the year 1874, and of which I have now before me a 

 more extensive series of specimens from the Hamburg Museum 

 (obtained by the Hamburg-Magellan Collecting Expedition). In 

 this species I discovered a form of care of the brood hitherto 

 unknown either among Holothurians or iu the case of any other 

 Echinoderm. For in the female animals (the sexes in this species 

 are separate, just as I can also show to be the case in Chiridota 



• Clark, " The Viviparous <S>/Ma;jf« of the West Indies" (Zool. Auz. 

 189G, p. 398), and "Notes on the Life-History of Synapta vim'para, 

 CErstedt " (' Juurual of the Institute of Jamaica,' vol. ii. part 3, Kings- 

 ton (Jamaica), 1896, pp. 278-282). 



t Ludwig, " Die von Chierchia auf der Fahrt der kgl. ital. Corvette 

 ' Vettor Pisani ' gesaminelten Holothurien," Zoologische Jabrbiicher, ii. 

 1886, pp. 28-29. Clark does not refer to this publication, but, on the 

 contrary, erroneously asserts that I described a specimen of Sytiapta vivi- 

 para as far back as 1881. My paper of the year 1881 (' Archives de 

 Biologie,' ii. p. 41) refers not to ISynapta vivipara, but to Chii-idota 

 rotifera. 



X See previous note. 



