Misce llaneous. 171 



insects, and rnollusks). It is therefore by no means the case, what- 

 ever may have been said, that the larvae of the Gordii are parasites 

 peculiar to insects. As regards fishes, these, as I have asserted, are 

 perhaps the animals which harbour these larvae most frequently and 

 in tho greatest number. It is only necessary to open a few indivi- 

 duals belongiug to the species that I have indicated to become con- 

 vinced of the reality of this fact. 



It is none the less evident that the normal hosts of the Gordii are 

 all animals exclusively or temporarily aquatic. Water is, in fact, 

 the normal medium of the Gordii. It is in the water that they 

 become adult and that they reproduce ; it is in the water that their 

 larva? live at first on their escape from the egg ; and it is also in the 

 water that their migration must be effected. 



The parasitism of the larvae of the Gordii in terrestrial animals 

 has an essentially abnormal and exceptional character; and in order 

 to expiain it we must have recourse to very peculiar conditions. In 

 countries of plains these are realized by the periodical inundations 

 of the great streams and by the systematic irrigations to which the 

 natural or artificial meadows are subjected throughout the summer. 

 In the mountains, and upon inclined ground generally, matters are 

 different. Brooks and torrents only too frequently escape from 

 their beds. The storms of rain which are so frequent in these 

 regions form actual sheets of water which carry away every thing 

 in their course — soil, plants, and animals. Many terrestrial insects 

 (Carabidae, Mantides, grasshoppers, and locusts) must perish in this 

 way ; and the worms which they contain, being set at liberty, have 

 only to abandon themselves to the stream. Thus we often find 

 young Gordii in the very primitive reservoirs, hollowed out of the 

 trunk of a tree, which serve the mountaineers to collect drainage- 

 water. 



The frequency of the larvae of Gordii in insects, which is usually 

 objected against my views, is more apparent than real. It must 

 be borne in mind that the insects are represented by a great number 

 of species, and that they are sought after by most naturalists. — 

 Comptes Bendus, June 28, 1880, p. 1569. 



On a new Species of Dasyurus from JS 7 eiv Guinea. 

 By M. A. Milne Edwards. 



The collections which have been made of late years in New 

 Guinea indicate resemblances previously unsuspected between the 

 fauna of that great island and that of Australia. Many mammals 

 which were thought to be peculiar to New Holland have been found 

 upon the land of the Papuas ; and among the more remarkable 

 I may cite the Echidnas, represented by two very distinct forms, the 

 true Phalangers and the dwarf and flying Phalangers, the 

 Cuscus, the Kangaroos, the Bandicoots, and the Phascogales. 

 But hitherto the Australian true Carnivorous types had not been 

 indicated in New Guinea. This gap has just been filled up by the 

 discovery at the Arfak Mountains of a representative of the genus 

 Dasyurus. Several species of this small group were already known 

 in Australia — some attaining the size of a cat (such as Dasyurus 



