Miscellaneous. 311 



than the rest, as if some one had trodden on it, the Volute was 

 found ; and in this way many were obtained in a living and beautiful 



state. 



On Loxosoma Kefersteinii, a soft Bryozoan of the Bay of Naples. 

 By E. Claparede. 



In 1862 M. Claparede discovered on the coast of Normandy an 

 epizoon of the worms of the genus Notomastus, which was shortly 

 afterwards described by Professor Keferstein under the name of 

 Loxosoma singulare. It is a Bryozoon, allied to PedicelUna (Sars), in 

 which the anal extremity of the intestine pierces the wall of the 

 pharynx, and opens outwards in the middle of the mouth. It is 

 entirely soft, being destitute of the hard integuments so general 

 among the Bryozoa. 



The bay of Naples contains a great abundance of a second species 

 of Loxosoma, measuring about half a millimetre in length (exclusive 

 of the peduncle) ; it lives, attached by its peduncle, upon various 

 animals, chiefly Bryozoa of the genus Acamarchis. M. Claparede 

 names it L. Kefersteinii. 



The body is of an elongate-ovoid form, obliquely truncated in front 

 by the buccal funnel, into which the ciHated tentacles are usually re- 

 tracted under the abnormal conditions induced by observation. The 

 funnel contracts so as to form a sort of diaphragm above the mouth 

 and anus ; but this always presents an aperture by which the water 

 may penetrate freely into the cavity of the funnel, where it is con- 

 stantly renewed by the movement of the cilia covering the inner sur- 

 face of the wall of this cavity and the inner surface of the tentacles. 



The tentacles appear to be fourteen in number ; L. singulare has 

 only ten. The digestive apparatus is arranged as in the species from 

 the Channel ; the lower extremity of the buccal funnel passes gra- 

 dually into the oesophagus, which extends to the posterior extremity 

 of the body, where it bends round and opens into a large greenish- 

 yellow stomach. From this springs a short, cylindrical intestine, 

 which pierces the wall of the pharynx to open externally in the 

 middle of the mouth. The anal portion does not rise, as in L. sin- 

 gulare, like a kind of chimney, to the highest region of the buccal 

 funnel. 



The author thinks that this interpretation of the parts of the ali- 

 mentary tube is not quite free from doubt, and that it is possible the 

 part called by M. Keferstein and himself the mouth may be the 

 anus, and vice versa. 



The very contractile peduncle is of variable length, but always 

 much longer than in L. singulare. It terminates in a sort of sucking- 

 disk ; and six or seven bands of muscles run from one end of it to 

 the other ; these are separated from each other by the same num- 

 ber of rows of nuclei, 0-006 millim. in diameter. 



The only individuals showing sexual organs were females, and in 

 these the ovaries exactly resemble those of L. singulare. Most of 

 the specimens were engaged in gemmiparous reproduction, the buds 



