718 SUMMARY OF CUREENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



anterior part of the body forward with its feet until fully extended, 

 when it breaks the glutinous adhesion ; under even the lower powers 

 of the Microscope the drops of secretion may be seen on the feet. 

 A Chrysopa-lavva, (probably Hemerohius) was able to crawl well on 

 vertical glass, but on sand the feet became clogged ; some larvae of this 

 group, on the other hand, had the grasping lobes but slightly 

 developed, and these adopted the loop mode of walking ; the 

 adhesion of the posterior end of the body was so strong that many 

 larvae long resisted all attempts to shake them off by twisting the 

 glass suddenly round. 



Among the Hymenoptera the ventral feet of some sawflies have 

 this power. Most spiders are devoid of it, but leaping spiders leap 

 and crawl on vertical surfaces, and have grasping disks for adhesion. 

 Among Coelenterata, Hydra may be seen to excrete mucous adhesive 

 matter from its foot. 



Zoology of the Voyage of the 'Alert.'* — The Zoological collec- 

 tions made by Dr. E. W. Coppinger, Staflf-Surgeon H.M.S. ' Alert * 

 in the Melanesian Seas and in the Western Indian Ocean were so 

 large that the Trustees of the British Museum ordered the account 

 of them to be published as a separate volume. The magnitude of 

 the collection may be inferred from the statement that " irrespective 

 of a number of specimens set aside as duplicates not less than 3700 

 referable to 1300 species were incorporated in the National Collec- 

 tion ; " of these the most important were marine invertebrates, and 

 490 of the species are either new or are additions to the Museum. 

 The specimens were admirably preserved, and collected. Dr. Giinther 

 says, with singular judgment. 



In place of the one species of lancelet which Dr. Giinther thought 

 to be cosmopolitan, six distinct species are, he now thinks, to be 

 recognized. 



The MoUusca are treated of by Mr. Edgar A. Smith, who finds that 

 of the Melanesian specimens the general character is Malayan. 



The Echinodermata are dealt with by Prof. E. Jeffrey Bell, who 

 found that 30 of the 124 Melanesian species were new ; fifteen of 

 these were Comatulids, He adduces evidence to show that pattern 

 of coloration is not as important a characteristic of the species of 

 OpMothrix as has been generally supposed. He proposes some altera- 

 tions in the mode of formulating the characters of Crinoids. Having 

 had the opportunity of examining a large collection from the Sydney 

 Museum he finds that no view can be more erroneous than one which 

 speaks of an Australian (marine) fauna without some sort of qualifica- 

 tion ; Cape York and Port MoUe are as much part of Australia 

 as Port Jackson, but between the two faunas the resemblance is as 

 slight as is in the nature of things possible. He concludes, in fact, 

 that " to-day, as in those Tertiary times when a wider sea separated 

 the Australian from the Asiatic continent, there are forms whose 

 breadth of range is coincident rather with isothermal lines than with 

 topographical boundaries." The marked manner in which the species 



•" ' Keport on the Zoological Collections made in the Indo-Pacific Ocean during 

 the voyage of H.M.S. Alert, 1881-2.' 8vo, London, 1884, 684 pp. (54 pis.). 



