234 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



which Professor Nicholson points out Mr. Waters identifies as his 

 S, pelliculata. 



Professor Nicholson found tangential sections gave the most im- 

 portant results, and these sections showed " numerous delicate 

 radiating spines," which he calls septal spines. In form and arrange- 

 ment they precisely resemble the septal spines of many species of 

 Favosites, and the absence of these in Monticulipora is an important 

 point of difference between the two genera. The canaliculi opening 

 into cavities of the tubes by definite pores is a structure that is 

 wanting in Monticulipora, and he says that " these canaliculi differ 

 structurally from the ' mural pores ' of the FavositidaB." 



In Heteropora neozelanica he found tabulae always present, though 

 their number is comparatively small, and these he comijares with the 

 partitions or " tabulge " in Entalophora and other Bryozoa ; but we 

 may be allowed to point out that these partitions are formed in Enta- 

 lophora, probably on the death of the polypide, in a certain definite 

 position in each species, one thus closing the cell, and this is very 

 different to numerous partitions following close upon one another in 

 the same zooecial tube — as in Heteropora conifera Haime, and H.pus- 

 tulosa Haime. From the descriptions and figures it seems possible 

 that there is one partition in each tube, which should then be com- 

 pared to the partition in EntalopJiora rather than to those in H.pustu- 

 losa, &c. Professor Nicholson finds the points of likeness between 

 Heteropora and Monticulipora less weighty than the points of differ- 

 ence, and concludes that there is no real relationship at all between 

 Heteropora and Monticulipora, so that palajontologists cannot any longer 

 support the Bryozoan affinities of Monticulipor-a by its likeness to 

 Heteropora ; but he considers that this does not of necessity prove 

 that Monticulipora may not belong to the Bryozoa rather than to the 

 Coelenterata, though his opinion at present leans to the latter. He 

 further points out that it is not without hazard to unhesitatingly 

 assign Heteropora a place among the Bryozoa; and while this is 

 certainly true, Professor Nicholson, perhaps, does not sufficiently 

 appreciate that the " septal spines " are very frequent in the Cyclo- 

 stomatous Bryozoa, although scarcely ever mentioned by systematists, 

 while canaliculi and partitions are also usual. 



Arthropoda. 

 o. Insecta. 



Comparative Anatomy of the Nervous System of Insects.*— 

 In this note Dr. E. Brandt commences by describing the nervous system 

 of the Coleoptera. Some of these have the sub-cesophageal and tho- 

 racic ganglia fused ; the cerebral ganglia are always convoluted ; 

 there are one, two, or three thoracic ganglia ; the number of abdo- 

 minal ganglia varies greatly, from one to eight ; in some (Curcu- 

 lionidse, Lamellicornes) there are no separate abdominal ganglia ; 

 sometimes the number differs with the sex. 



* Coiuptes Rendus, xci. (18S0) p. 935. 



