234 Miscellaneous. 



entirely neglected. These were now examined in their connective 

 parts, and here numerous Psorospermia were easily recognizable. 

 This discovery led me to the notion that these parasites possibly 

 make their way in (in a motile young state) and establish them- 

 selves first of all in the softer parts of the eye-peduncle in newly 

 hatched crayfish. 



However, I have established with certainty that Psorospermium 

 EcecJcelii is able to multiply in the body of its host. This fact was 

 not previously known. I ascertained it by means of staining with 

 aceto-carmine. The portions of tissue under examination were 

 placed in this approved staining-material for an hour, and then 

 cleared in dilute glycerine. Of the material thus treated I made 

 numerous torn preparations which gave me an insight not only into 

 the reproduction of the Psorospermium, but also into its minute 

 structure. 



Externally, as already stated, there is in our parasite a thick 

 euticular zone, which marks the boundary from the tissue of the 

 crayfish. This cuticle does not stain at all with aceto-carmine. On 

 its inner wall there is a lining which greedily takes up the colour 

 and which is divided by fine interstices into a number of portions 

 of difierent size. This is the " pattern of large meshes " which 

 Hilgendorf also saw. From this lining of the wall proceed the 

 reproductive bodies, large balls (acquiring a dark red colour), which 

 are always present to the number of eight to ten when the time for 

 their appearance arrives. 



When these bodies are perfectly mature the cuticle bursts in the 

 Bporozoon at one of the two ends, and the issue of the separate balls 

 takes place into the surrounding tissue. Each reproductive body 

 forms a spherical structure, which possesses, quite in the interior, a 

 " nucleus," which remains entirely uncoloured. Externally each 

 spherule is enclosed by an envelope which stains deep red ; and 

 between this and the pale nucleus we see a rose-coloured interme- 

 diate zone. 



By the secretion of a cuticle (after increase in length has taken 

 place) these spherules come to resemble the parent organisms from 

 which they originate. All possible transitions are found between 

 the youngest and oldest stages, so that the very simple cycle of 

 development is quite clearly indicated. — Zoohgischer Anzeiger, 

 no. 270, January 23, 1888, p. 49. 



Tivo neiv Genera of Epicarides (Probopyrus mid Palegyge). 

 By MM. A. GiAKD and J. Bonnier. 



By the kindness of the Direction of the Eoyal Museum of Natural 

 History at Brussels we have been enabled to study the collection of 

 Bopyrina belonging to that important institution. In it we have 

 found two interesting forms of Epicarides parasitic upon species of 

 Palcemon inhabiting the fresh waters of the Dutch Malaysia and 

 probably of the island of Amboyna. It seems to us that these two 



