Miscellaneous. 465 



Epithetosoma, g. n. 



Body cylindrical, furnished at its anterior end with a long, non- 

 retractile, tubular appendage (proboscis). Behind this, on the ven- 

 tral surface, the round buccal aperture. On each side of the anterior 

 extremity of the body a fissure, which is furnished with several 

 apertures at the bottom ; no anal appendages ; anus at the posterior 

 extremity of the body. 



Epithetosoma norvegicum, sp. n. 



Body cylindrical, 12 millims. long, 2 millims. broad. The tubular 

 appendage two and a half times as long as the body ; intestine the 

 same, much folded. Colour of the body olive-green, of the pro- 

 boscis pale greenish. 



One example, taken at Station 190 in G9° 41' N". lat., 15° 50'-5 E. 

 long., at a depth of 870 fathoms, on a bottom of sandy mud. — Nyt 

 Magazin for Naturvid. 1 880, pp. 44-66. 



On the Existence of Polar Globules in the Ovum of the Crustacea. 

 By M. L. F. Hennegut. 



Grobben is the only author who has hitherto noticed the pre- 

 sence of polar globules in the ovum of the Crustacea. He states 

 that he saw, in the ovum of Moina rectirostris, a small clear spot 

 situated at the superior pole, enclosed in the vitellus, which he re- 

 gards as a polar globule flattened by the envelope of the ovum 

 which is closely applied to the vitellus. 



On examining recently laid ova of Asellus aquations I saw, in 

 the tolerably wide space which separates the vitellus from the 

 chorion, two small transparent globules, containing a few granules 

 and presenting all the characters of the polar globules observed in 

 the ova of other animals. I have even been fortunate enough twice 

 to see one of these globules detach itself from the vitellus. In all 

 the ova that I have examined, these little bodies were nearly of the 

 same diameter. In some ova there were four of them, forming a 

 little group ; and they were then smaller than in the ova in which 

 there were only two : it is probable that in this case the two globules 

 had divided. 



These globules persist for some time in the ovum, and only dis- 

 appear when the vitellus is already divided into about ten segments. 

 The first segmentative grooves forming simultaneously around 

 nuclei which make their appearance at the surface of the vitellus, 

 the polar globules do not here play any part in relation to the pro- 

 duction of the first segmentative furrow, and cannot be regarded as 

 directive corpuscles. Their formal ion is very probably connected 

 with the disappearance of the germinal vesicle, as Eol and Hertwig 

 have demonstrated in the case of the Echinoderms ; but the opacity 

 of the vitellus has not allowed me to sec the germinal vesicle, or to 

 witness its disappearance. — Bull. Soc. Philom. Paris, April 10, 

 1880. 



