882 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Fossil Diastoporidse.* — Mr. Vine continues tis notes on theDiasto- 

 poridfe, and describes and figures four Jurassic species, one of wliich 

 lie considers may have been described by Quenstedt and Dumortier. 



The author finds himself in considerable difiiculty concerning the 

 classification, seeing that the ' History of the Marine Polyzoa ' by 

 Mr. Hincks has appeared since the review of the Diastoporidaa was 

 commenced. The Berenicea and Diastopora of Lamouroux have 

 frequently been used as synonymous, but Mr. Vine proposes to call 

 the simple Diastoporfe of Milne Edwards — Diastopora ; the enveloping 

 or laminated forms — Berenicea ; and the biserial — Mesenteripora. 



In order to fully appreciate the bearing of this, we must remember 

 that in the Cyclostomatous Bryozoa hardly any characters have been 

 found upon which generic classification can be based, whereas in the 

 Cheilostoma several are now recognized, and as these characters have 

 been more fully studied it has been found that the classification must 

 be less and less based upon the form of the colonial growth. This 

 being the chief character used in the Cyclostomata, we may conclude 

 that they are only yet empirically arranged, and therefore remarks 

 upon the classification of a small series of fossil forms may only mean 

 that the author finds such a system the most convenient in arranging 

 his specimens. While it is well to know what careful and con- 

 scientious workers believe they find the most natural, both author and 

 readers must look upon present arrangements as only tentative. 



Carboniferous Fenestellidse-f — Mr. G. W. Shrubsole has previ- 

 ously announced that he considers the number of species of Fenestella 

 must be largely reduced, and, in continuation of his former papers, now 

 describes six prominent species, giving at the same time the twenty- 

 seven synonyms under which they had previously been known. He also 

 gives a comprehensive description of the genus Fenestella, which has 

 been described by various palfeontologists with reference only to the 

 period they had under discussion. 



The author finds Palceocoryne — supposed to be a Hydrozoan — only 

 on one species, viz. Fenestella nodulnsa, and on that usually on the 

 front or pore-face ; and this, Mr. Shrubsole considers, explains the 

 reason why it is so difficult to obtain the pore-face of this species, 

 as, with the projecting Palceocoryne on the front, it has naturally been 

 more firmly held to the shale. The discovery that some species of 

 Glauconome possess a fenestrate zoarium is alluded to, and it is 

 pointed out that this considerably complicates the question of the 

 nature and relationship of the palaeozoic Bryozoa, and possibly both 

 genera possessed the denticulate aperture. 



Arthropoda. 



Colour-Sense in Insects and Crustacea. — At the Jubilee meeting 

 of the British Association, Sir John Lubbock described experiments 

 he has made on the colour-sense of some of the lower animals. In the 

 course of his remarks he said : — " Most botanists are now agreed that 

 insects, especially bees, have played a very important part in the 



* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, xxxvli. (1881) pp. 381-90 (1 pi.)- 

 t Ibid., xxxvii. (1881) pp. 178-89. 



