l62 



NA TURE 



[April 8, 1909 



distribution that arrests one, as when Messrs. Thom- 

 son and Ritchie report the occurrence of the very 

 beautiful Umhellula durissima, KoUiker, from 

 48° o''6 S., 10° 5' W. — a far cry from the south of 

 Yeddo, where the Challenger found it. In other cases 

 we get a useful general impression. Thus we find 

 abundant evidence of the distinctiveness of many of 

 the elements in the marine fauna of the Antarctic and 

 sub-Antarctic regions, for instance, in the Tardigrada, 

 which Mr. Murray disentombed out of a little moss 

 from the South Orkneys; or in Dr. von Linstow's 

 new .Ascarido from the Weddell seal ; or in the new 

 turbellarians reported by Drs. Gemmill and Leiper, 

 the first adequately described members of this class 

 from the far south; or in Mr. E. T. Browne's new 

 medusa, Botrynema brucei, from 64° 48' S., 44° 26' W. 

 Most striking, however, is Prof. Koehler's fine 

 memoir on the asteroids, ophiuroids, and echinoids, 



is a specimen of the hitherto unique abyssal gastro- 

 pod Guivillea alahastrina, dredged from near the 

 original Challenger locality at a depth of 1775 

 fathoms. Messrs. Melvill and Standen, who deal with 

 the molluscs, direct special attention to some other 

 benthal species from unusual depths, such as Colum- 

 barium benthocallis, n.sp., a " beauty of the deep," 

 from 1775 fathoms, with a shell of papyraceous texture, 

 as in many other abyssal forms. The bibliographical 

 resurni given at the end of this report is to be com- 

 mended. Among the remarkable types we must also 

 rank the forgotten Decolopoda atistralis, a ten-legged 

 Pycnogonid described by Dr. Eights some seventy 

 years ago, and beside this there is now Pentanymphon 

 antarcticum, which Mr. Hodgson found on the Dis- 

 covery expedition. It is also represented in the large 

 Scotia collection of Pycnogonids which Mr. Hodgson 

 describes. He points out that the Scotia collection of 



Weddell Seal (Leptonychotes weddclh ; 



. of lilt; Repn 



which deals with more than forty new species. The 

 author indicates firmly that the Arctic and Antarctic 

 echinoderms are completely different — that question is 

 settled. The Antarctic echinoderm fauna is much 

 richer than the Arctic, and more diverse. Dr. Koehler 

 speaks enthusiastically of Dr. Bruce's " Collection 

 d'Echinodermes antarctiques la plus importante qui 

 ait 6t6 recuiellie jusqu'a ce jour," and both in the text 

 and in his beautiful plates he does justice to it. 



In other cases we have to welcome a new type, like 

 Sir Charles Eliot's Notasolidia, a genus of large nudi- 

 branchs linking the ^olididffi to such forms as 

 Dendronotus and Lomanotus. The largest specimen 

 of A', gigas, it may be noted, is no less than 122.5 mm. 

 long. Interesting also is Mr. Ritchie's new hydroid 

 Brucella, with two nematophores to each hydrotheca, 

 and a beautiful, highly specialised coppinia or bunch 

 of clustered gonangia. Not new, but very welcome, 



NO. 2058, VOL. 80] 



Pycnogonids is " totally different from that made ly 

 the Discovery in the same region, but on the opposite 

 side of the world." 



A collection of the minute wingless insects known 

 as springtails does not seem to the outsider of much 

 geographical interest, j-et if those who come to scoff 

 at this sort of small game will read Prof. Carpenter's 

 report on the Collembola of the South Orkneys, they 

 will probably remain to pray — for more springtails. 

 " For the wingless — primitively wingless, as we 

 believe — condition of these insects, their frail integu- 

 ment, and their concealed mode of life make it highly 

 unlikely that they can cross broad tracts of sea ; 

 therefore the presence of identical or closely allied 

 species on widely separated islands or continents may 

 safely be regarded as sure evidence of the antiquity of 

 the insects, and of the former existence of land- 

 connections to explain their present discontinuous 



