386 Miscellaneous. 



twenty-three to thirtj^-one ; among the individuals (all of large 

 size) in which the phenomenon was not observed the number of 

 arms varied from thirty -nine to forty-two. The great number of 

 arms in old individuals thus seems to be connected with this forma- 

 tion of intercalary arms. I have recognized some indications of an 

 analogous formation in Heliaster. In connexion with this I will 

 remark that, in Brisinga medi terra nea, the nine arms are entirely 

 formed before the close of the larval period; young examples of 

 Solaster and Acanthaster did not present any arms in course of for- 

 mation. 



In order to classify the starfishes of the sea around Cape Horn I 

 have had to form the new genera Diplastinas, Asterodenna, Porani- 

 opsis, Cribraster, Lebrioiaster, and Asterodon. In the genus Diplas- 

 tinas I range Asterias-iorms which have at least two rows of adam- 

 bulacral spines ; Asferoderma includes ^stenVe without any apparent 

 spines or pedicellariae, and in which the dorsal skeleton is almost 

 deficient. The genus Poraniopsis presents characters exactly inter- 

 mediate between those of Echinaster and Porania ; the animals of 

 this genus have the ventral surface differentiated from the dorsal 

 surface and thick integuments, like the Poranixe, while the very 

 short arms are rounded and covered with spines. The Crihrasteres 

 axe Cribrellce having paxilli upon the ventral surface ; in Lebrnn- 

 aster marginal plates begin to be difl^erentiated. These animals 

 form the passage towards the Ganerice, which themselves lead to 

 the Ct/cethra;, The species of Asterodon, previously classed with 

 the Goniasteridse, are in reality Archasteridae. They are charac- 

 terized by their dentary plates, each having a hyaline spine laid 

 down upon them with its point directed outwards ; these two spines 

 may unite and form only a single hyaline interradial spine, resem- 

 bling the dentary plume of the sea-urchins. Asterodon has also 

 at the angle of the arms an unpaired marginal plate, and the ven- 

 tral spines often group themselves into multifid pedicellariae, as in 

 Pectinaster, E. P. To this genus must be referred Astrogonium 

 singulare, Miill. & Tr., A. meridionalis, Smith, Pentagonaster Belli, 

 Studer, CalUderma Orayi, Bell, and two new species, Asterodon 

 pedicellaris and granulosus. — Comptes Rendus, March 12, 1888, 

 p. 763. 



Oti Nephromyces, a new Genus of Fungi parasitic in the Kidney of 

 the Molgulidoe. By M. A. Giaed. 



In a fine memoir on Cgclostoma elegans, M. Garnault * has 

 recently noticed the existence in this mollusk of a closed organ 

 ( glande a concretions of Claparcde) which contains at the same time 

 uric products and symbiotic bacilli. Several years ago I observed 

 phenomena of symbiosis of the same kind in the completely closed 



* ' Recherches anatomiques et lilstologiques sur le Cyclostoma elegans,' 

 pp. 49-60 (1887). 



