120 Miscellaneous. 



well-knowu structure of the Daphuidae, and their poculiaritios thus 

 completely explained morphologically. The principal difterencc which 

 leads physiologically to new conditions of emhryonic nourishment, 

 and is also of importance with regard to the external form of the body, 

 consists in the transformation of the brood-chamber, bounded by 

 the skin of the back and the inferior lamella of the shell, into a 

 uterus-like sac, the cellidar wall of which {h>/podennis) becomes a 

 nutrient organ of the ova and embryos, either throughout its whole 

 extent (Po'ion, Evadne), or only in the ventral lamella, which is in 

 contact with the intestine. 



The nervous system could be traced in its whole course in all 

 four genera. The brain is followed by a subcesophageal ganglion, 

 which is united to it by short broad oesophageal commissures, and 

 by the ventral ganglionic chain, the four inflations of which, united 

 by transverse commissures, emit nerves for the limbs. The last and 

 smallest pair of ganglia also sends forth nerves to the abdomen and 

 to the tactile setae of the postabdomen. 



The crystalline cones of the large movable eye consist throughout 

 of five segments ; the nervous rods belonging to them show lamellar 

 stnicture. 



The sheU-gland was traced in all the genera in its whole length 

 to its orifice. In its course it presents characteristic peculiarities 

 in each genus and species, but consists throughout of the ampulli- 

 form sac, the inner and outer looped canal, the terminal duct, and 

 the short narrow eff'erent tube. The dilated terminal duct, ex- 

 tended after the fashion of a reservoir, contains large shining iiri- 

 nary concretions in Podon and Evadne. 



The adherent organ of Evadne and Podon is not a sucking-cup 

 with radiating muscles, but an excretory organ composed of large 

 glandiJar cells with streaky protoplasm. In Evadne nine or ten 

 ceUs are usually employed in its formation ; their conically decreased 

 secreting ends are ajjplied to the well-known cuticular disk. 



The ova, as in the Daphnidie, are produced in four-celled cham- 

 bers of the ovary, but are extraordinarily small when they pass into 

 the brood-chamber, where an abundant supply of nourishment is 

 furnished to the developing embryo by secretion from the walls. 

 In Evadne the embryo becomes pregnant while still in the body of 

 the mother, and is usually bom with four ova in process of segmen- 

 tation in the uterus. 



The formation of the winter egg in Evadne takes place by ab- 

 sorprion-processes of the neighbouring egg-chamber. — Kais. Akad. 

 der Wiss. in Wien, Oct. 20, 1S76. 



On the Colydiidae of New Zealand. By D. Shaep. 



In the ' Annals,' July 1876, p. 22, I established a new genus of 

 Colydiidse, with the name Epistrophus. I find this word has 

 already been used by Kirsch for a genus of Curculionida) ; and I 

 propose therefore for the genus of Colydiidae above alluded to the 

 name of Episiraniis in place of Epistrophtis. 



