432 
II. Mittheilungen aus Museen, Instituten etc. 
1. Linnean Society of New South Wales. 
28th May, 1884. — 1. New Australian Fishes in the Queensland 
Museum. By Charles W.De Vis, M.A. This, the first of a series of 
Papers descriptive of rare and new Fishes in the Queensland Museum, is 
confined to the Percidae only. Twenty-three species are described and 4 
new genera, viz.: — Herops allied to Priacanthus, Homodemus a fresh water 
Fish approaching Dules, Auristhes of doubtful affinity, and Hephestus a 
fresh water vegetable feeding Fish resembling Lobotes. — 2. The Hydro- 
medusae of Australia. Part 3. By R. v. Lendenfeld, Ph.D. The Austra- 
lian Hydromedusae are here described which belong tothe author’s family 
Blastopolypidae. To the species described by former authors, which are 
enumerated with references, several new ones are added, some of which are 
of greater morphological interest, particularly Diphosia symmetrica nov. sp., 
which produces perfectly bilateral symmetrical female Gonangia. The 
number of species is exceedingly great. As far as some of the sub-families 
of this group are concerned, no other shore is inhabited by anything like 
such a number and diversity of forms as ours. — 3. On the Geographical 
Distribution of the Australian Medusae. By R.v. Lendenfeld, Ph.D. The 
distribution of the Medusae, or at all events of the large Rhizostomes, is 
shown in this Paper to be entirely controlled by the Ocean currents. Conse- 
quently where the currents are permanent the range of a species can only 
extend in one direction. — 4. The Digestion of Sponges, Ectodermal or 
Endodermal? By R. von Lendenfeld, Ph.D. The earlier experiments, 
which were made to ascertain where the digestive organ of the sponge is si- 
tuated, showed such different results, that the author made a series of ex- 
periments on the subject two years ago in Melbourne, and was, by the help 
of these, enabled, not only to show with a large degree of probability, where 
and how the digestion was effected in the sponge which he experimented on, 
but he was also enabled by these experiments to find out the cause of the 
great difference in the results attained by former observers. The experiments 
were carried on with Carmine powder, mixed with the water of the Aqua- 
rium in which the sponge was kept. The results the author arrived at were 
taken up by the recent author's on sponges at home; and the second part of 
the question, viz., to which Embryonic layer the Epithelia belonged which, 
according to the author’s researches, absorbed the food, was extensively dis- 
cussed. The present paper gives an abstract of this interesting discussion, 
and there are also a few additions to the author’s former statements. — Mr. 
Macleay said he wished to rectify as far as he was able at present some 
unaccountable omissions in the Supplement to the Catalogue of Australian 
Fishes, just published in Part 1, of Vol. IX, of the Proceedings. These 
were: — Lophotes Guntheri Johnston. Proc. Roy. Soc., Tasmania, 1882. 
Atherina Tasmaniensis Johnston. Proc. Roy. Soc., Tasmania, 1882. Olsthe- 
rops Brownii Johnston. Proc. Roy. Soc., Tasmania, 1883. — Mr. Mac- 
leay exhibited for the Rev. T. Wyat Gill a small beetle from New Guinea 
— the firefly of the country — found about 40 miles East of Port Moresby. 
It was of the same family as the fireflies of Southern Europe, the Lampy- 
ridae, though probably a new species. Baron Maclay observed that he had 
noticed in New Guinea many other species of this family producing light in 
the same manner. 
Druck von Breitkopf & Hartel in Leipzig. 
