242 8UMMABY OP CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Moulting of the Lobster.* — ^Dr. A. S. Packard has made some 

 observations on the mode of moulting of the lobster. 



According to the lobster fishermen, the creature moults but once 

 a year. Shortly before the moult the parts between the segments are 

 much swollen, and have a livid colour. Meanwhile the inner side of 

 the flattened basal joints (three to five) of the large claws become soft, 

 the lime on the crust partly disappearing, leaving an irregular oval 

 solid portion ; in this way the contents of the large hand or claw can 

 be drawn through the basal portion of the limb. The first step in 

 the ecdysis is the splitting or partial separation of the two halves of 

 the carapace ; it may entirely separate posteriorly, or the two halves 

 remain together, and the animal withdraws its body out of the sutures 

 between the thorax and first abdominal segment. The integument of 

 the legs is moulted last, and when, owing to rough handling, the 

 process is delayed, the extremities of the legs slough off. The entire 

 integument, with all the appendages of the head, thorax, and the 

 abdomen, are moulted as a whole, but the abdominal legs are moulted 

 before the thoracic ones. Dr. Packard found all the parts of the 

 crust connected, and floating in the " lobster car," even including the 

 lining of the proventricle or stomach, and the apodemes of the head 

 and thorax. After the moult the soft and flabby lobster lies nearly 

 motionless, occasionally, if disturbed, giving a flap with its "tail." 

 It remains inactive for nearly or quite a week, until the new crust 

 becomes hard. He is convinced that the deformities in the big claws 

 as well as other parts, occur at the time of moulting, as after disturb- 

 ing the symmetry of the claws in a specimen, the deformity persisted. 



Cyrtophium calamicola.l — Mr. G. M. Giles gives a description 

 of the structure and habits of Cyrtophium calamicola, a new tubicolous 

 amphipod found about the Palmyra shoal and mouth of the Dhamra 

 river on the Orissa coast. The tube is considerably longer than the 

 animal, is of a deep golden brown colour, banded with zones of dark 

 and lighter tint ; it consists of coarse, and apparently structureless, 

 fibres, beneath which there is a transparent layer. This latter 

 consists of a layer of hexagonal thick- walled cells, with an outer 

 layer of long quadrilateral cells ; and the whole structure leaves no 

 doubt as to its vegetable nature ; it is apparently part of a grass or 

 reed. Inside and out the tube is covered by a hardened secretion, 

 and in some cases the vegetable portion is altogether wanting. The 

 dactylopodite of the second gnathopod is adapted for cutting purposes, 

 and would serve to trim the grass or sever the thread of secretion ; 

 the author has been unable to satisfy himself as to the position of the 

 secreting gland, but there are glands both in the propodites of the 

 gnathopods and at the bases of the thoracic limbs ; that on the second 

 gnathopod is probably the seat of the membrane-forming secretion. 



Terrestrial Isopods.J — Mr. G. Budde-Lund has written a mono- 

 graph of the terrestrial Isopoda which he divides into foiar families — 



* Amer. Natural., xx. (1886) p. 173. 

 t Journ. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, liv. (1885) pp. 54-9 (1 pi.). 

 X ' Crustacea Isopoda Terrestria per familias et genera et species descripta,' 

 8vo, HavnisB, 1885, 319 pp. 



