August 17, 1911] 



NATURE 



229 



electrical radiations, and shows that the solar phenomena 

 b similarly explained. The presence of helium as a 

 prominent solar element is taken as evidence of the 

 in the sun of the radio-active elements from which 

 the 18 and y rays may emanate. The monograph is pub- 

 lished b\ W. P. van btockum et Fils, The Hague. 



PAPERS ON INVERTEBRATES. 

 TN the Records of the Indian Museum for May (vol. vi., 

 part 2), Dr. N. Annandale describes certain curious 

 masses dredged in the Bay of Bengal, which on examina- 

 tion proved to be sponges associated with gregarious 

 molluscs of the family Vermetidae, the latter being 

 embedded in the former. The masses, which were in a 

 bad state of preservation, are of two types, one consisting 

 of shells with serrated ridges embedded in moderately hard 

 black sponges, and the other of smoother shells associated 

 with stony sponges, ranging in colour from red to yellow. 

 The ridged shell is Siliquaria muricata, and the associated 

 sponge Spongorocites topsenti. The second type comprises 

 two molluscs, Spiroglyphus cummingi and Siliquaria 

 cochlearis, the associated sponges being two forms of 

 Racodiscula sceptrellifcra, which differ from one another in 

 colour. When fresh, the masses of the second type must 

 have had a brilliant appearance, the sponge being red or 

 orange, the shells pink, and the soft parts of the molluscs 

 vellow. Both the two sponges associated with the three 

 Vermetidse are found elsewhere growing alone. 



In two issues of the Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. (Nos. 1S23 

 and 1826), Mr. Paul Bartsch catalogues the recent and 

 fossil representatives of the molluscan genera Cerithiopsis 

 and Bittium from the west coast of America ; and in 

 No. 1820 of the same serial Messrs. Dall and Bartsch 

 describe several new shells from Bermuda, including some 

 of the aforesaid Cerithiopsis. 



Variation in certain Jamaican species of land-snails of 

 the genus Pleurodonte (or Pleurodonta) forms the subject 

 of a paper by Mr. A. P. Brown in the Proceedings of the 

 Philadelphia Academy for February, 19.11. Variation in 

 the height of the spire indicates two waves of migration 

 into the district from the north, the first being probably 

 represented by an extinct race from near Somerset. In 

 analogous cases the variation in the height of the spire 

 has been attributed to difference of atmospheric pressure 

 according to altitude, tall-crowned forms being found high 

 up, and vice versa. But, as Mr. Brown points out, this 

 cannot be a vera causa, the diurnal oscillations in pressure 

 at a given point being in some parts of the island more 

 than equal to variation due_ to altitude. Moreover, in one 

 at least of the mountain forms, increase in spire-height is 

 accompanied bv a diminution in the size of the shell. In 

 the author's opinion, such variations are mainly controlled 

 by local differences in humidity. 



In the same serial for March, Messrs. Pilsbry and 

 Ferriss continue their review of the land-shells of the 

 south-western United States, dealing in this instance with 

 those of the Grand Canyon and northern Arizona. The 

 molluscan fauna of the Grand Canyon consists, with one 

 exception, of northern Arizona tyDes ; but the canyon 

 Forms an impassable barrier to Oreohelix, of which distinct 

 spei ies are found on its two sides. 



Certain features in regard to the vertical distribution in 

 the San Diego area of the minute translucent crustacean 

 Evcalanus elongatus (a relative of the better-known 

 Calanus finmarchicus) are discussed by Mr. C. O. Esterly 

 in vol. viii., No. 1, of the Zoological Publications of the 

 University of California. Despite considerable hourlv 

 variation in the numbers taken in plankton, it does not 

 seem that the species performs diurnal vertical migrations ; 

 and the reason for the numerical variation is therefore 

 still unknown. The author is led to suggest that diurnal 

 vertical migrations may have in part a protective object in 

 manv speries, seeincr that Eucalanus is adapted in other 

 wavs to life in the plankton. 



How much remains to be done in connection with 

 South African earwigs is made evident by the fact, as re- 

 corded bv Dr. M. Burr in vol. x., part i., of the Annals 

 of the South African Museum, that out of nineteen species 

 from the districts south of Rhodesia, no fewer than seven 

 proved to be new. One of these is assigned to Apterygida. 



NO. 2 1 8l, VOL. 87] 



a genus, as now restricted, previously known only by 

 A. alpipennis of Central Europe. 



The lug-worms (Arenicolidse) of South Africa are dis- 

 cussed by Dr. J. H. Ashworth in vol. xi., part i., of the 

 same serial. The special interest of this article is the 

 record of the rediscovery of Arenicola loveni, a species 

 hitherto known solely by a specimen from Natal preserved 

 in the Riksmuseum at Stockholm, and described by 

 Kinberg in 1866. An examination of the internal organs 

 of this specimen, supplemented by others recently obtained 

 by Dr. Gilchrist at Saldanha Bay, Cape Colony, shows 

 that the reference of the species to the typical genus is 

 correct. 



The one article in vol. iv., No. 7, of Records of the 

 Indian Museum is devoted to the description, by Mr. E. 

 Brunetti, of nearly fifty new Oriental flies of the group 

 Nemocera. 



To Biologisches Centralblatt for July 1 the Rev. Father 

 Wasmann contributes the first part of a critical review of 

 Escherich's " Termitenleben auf Ceylon." 



In vol. xxxiii., No. 4, of Notes from the Leyden 

 Museum Dr. R. Horst revises the characters of the genus 

 Notopygos, typified bv an amphinomid worm from St. 

 Helena described by Grube in 1855. The special feature 

 of the genus is the dorsal position of the vent, some 

 distance in advance of the terminal segment. Shortly 

 afterwards Grube referred to the same genus a Costa 

 Rican annelid, mentioning the presence of two dorsal 

 cirri. In 1857 Kinberg, who was apparently unacquainted 

 with the account of this second species, diagnosed the 

 genus as having a single cirrus, making no mention of 

 the dorsal position of the anus. He also referred two 

 annelids, respectively from Tahiti and Panama, to the 

 new genus Lirione, on account of the presence of a pair 

 of dorsal cirri. Apparently the single cirrus specimens, 

 which were from St. Helena, did not belong to Noto- 

 pygos, of which Lirione is now shown to be a synonym. 

 The genus is now known from St. Helena, Costa Rica, 

 Florida, Bermuda, Malaya, the Amirante Isles, and 

 Australia. . 



In No. 1846 of the Proceedings of the U.S. National 

 Museum Mr. E. Kirk discusses the relationships, classifi- 

 cation, and genealogy of certain " Eleutherozoic Pelmato- 

 zoa," in other words, of free-living echinoderms of the 

 cystid and crinoid groups. " With the possible exception 

 of the Holothuroidea, we may hold," writes the author, 

 " that such eleutherozoic echinoderms as are known to us 

 have been derived from statozoic ancestors. ... In the 

 case of the eleutherozoic forms we have one newly acquired 

 set of tendencies superimposed upon another set. These 

 secondary tendencies, induced as they are by a form of 

 life widely at variance with that under which the first set 

 operated, tend to vitiate the force of many of the primary 

 tendencies, if not indeed to nullify some of them. . . . 

 Such being the case, one's efforts to establish relationships 

 among these aberrant forms are apt to be unsatisfactory 

 at best. In manv cases, however, the eleutherozoic 

 Pelmatozoa stand so near the point of inception of their 

 several lines that the problem is not greatlv complicated 

 bv the presence of altered or superimposed structures. 

 Nevertheless, the classification and grouping adopted in the 

 paper are admittedly artificial and arbitrary. 



THE FOSSIL ELEPHANTS OF RUSSIA. 1 

 A LTHOUGH a fine series of elephant remains^ from 

 -"- Tiraspol, Government of Kherson, preserved in the 

 Geological Museum of Moscow University, forms the 

 basis of Madam Pavlow's monograph, the author has 

 examined several other collections, such as one from 

 Kouialnik, near Odessa, and a second at Kief. The 

 Tiraspol elephant has been identified with that form of 

 the mammoth distinguished, on account of the thicker 

 plates of its molars, as Elephas trogontherii. and charac- 

 teristic of the horizon of the Cromer Forest-bed. Madam 

 Pavlow finds, however, that in the Tiraspol molars the 

 plates are still thicker, and accordingly regards them as 

 representing a new species— E. wiisti, or -wuesti as it 

 1 " L-s Elephants Fossiles de la Rus«ie." By Marie PavW. Pp . iii + 

 60-M plates. Nouveanx Memoires de la Society Imperial.- ties Naturalistes 

 de Moscou, tome xvii, livraison 2. (Moscow. 1010.) 



