ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 583 



B. INVERTEBRATA. 



Invertebrate Fauna of the Firth of Forth.* — Mr. G. Leslie and 

 Dr. W. A. Herdmann have published a report on this subject. The 

 first part contains the Hydroida, Alcyonaria, and Echinodermata ; the 

 second, the Protozoa, Polyzoa, Crustacea, and Tunicata; and the 

 third the remaining groups. In the last there is an interesting note 

 by Mr. M'Murtrie on Patella vulgata. He says, " Where a spring of 

 fresh water rises on the shore above low-water mark, a little to the 

 east of Granton East Harbour, a thin form of P. vulgata, pale, and 

 with a silky surface, takes the place of all other forms, and is plentiful. 

 It may be due merely to the influence of fresh water, but I suspect a 

 corroding quality in the spring. Tedura testudinalis, in the same 

 place, is worn very thin." Some groups are not completely worked out. 



Fauna of the Swiss Lakes.j — Herr Asper has found a rich fauna 

 inhabiting the small lake of the St. Gotthard at 2154 metres above 

 the sea ; it includes larval Diptera, numerous species of Lumhrimlus, 

 some Pisidia, and a few small Calanid Copepoda. In the night a 

 number of pelagic Dajjhniidai and larvfe of gnats were obtained on the 

 surface. At the edge of the lake occurred numerous Neuro])tera- 

 larvfe, a few Planarians, among them a fine black species to be here- 

 after described. 



In the Lake of Eitom, in the Piora valley, of 1829 metres 

 elevation, were found on the stones near the shore large quantities 

 of Lymncea auricularia, the Engadine Hydra, H. rlicetica, a large 

 colonial Bryozoon, and numerous Neiiropfera-lavyee. The deeper parts 

 contained scarlet Calanidce and colourless DapJmiidce ; but mud from 

 a dej)th of 55 metres contained no trace of animal life. 



Mollusea. 



Olfactory Organs and Nervous System of the Mollusea. J — 

 Dr. J. W. Spengel argues for the unity of the Molluscan type. He 

 commences by pointing out that numerous references are to be 

 found to a structure which has never been fully worked out — the 

 so-called " ciliated organs " ; when the innervation of these parts is 

 examined, there is no doubt that the bodies so named in the 

 Heteropoda, Pteropoda, and Pulmonata are homologous, and that 

 an organ found in the Prosobranchiata, to which another significance is 

 ordinarily attached, clearly belongs to the same category. 



In examining such a Prosobranchiate form as a species of Trochus, 

 Turbo, or Vermetus, we find three pairs of ganglia grouped around the 

 pharynx, of which two are ordinarily known as the cerebral and pedal 

 respectively ; objecting to all the various names which have been given 

 to the third pair, the author proi^oses to distinguish them as the 

 pleural ganglia. To the cords which connect the centres of the same 

 side the author follows Professor Lacaze-Duthiers in applying the 

 term connective. These last form a triangle at the angles of which there 



* Proc. R. Phvs. Soc. Edinb., vi. (1S81) 106 pp. 



t Arch. Sci. Phys. et Nat., iv. (1880) p. 40(5. 



i Zeitscbr. f. wiss. Zool., xxxv. (1881) pp. 333-84 (3 pis ). 



