ZOOLOaY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 523 



Gulf of Naples, sometimes free-swimming, but more frequently on 

 pelagic Coelenterates, Tuuicates, worms, and molluscs. He identities it 

 with Cercaria sclifera Miiller and with the Cercaria ecJiinocerca of de 

 Filippi, and considers it as nut improbably related to a form of Disto- 

 mum found in Seroe. The characteristics of the species are shortly 

 described. 



Structure of Solenophorus.* — Signor C. Crety has particularly 

 devoted himself to the nervous system of S. megacephalus, in regard to 

 which the results of Moniez, Roboz, and Griesbach are not in agree- 

 ment. Two longitudinal nerves extend down the body ; these are united 

 in a commissure and ganglionic centre in the head. The histology is 

 discussed, and the entire system regarded as closely resembling that of 

 Botlirioceplialus latus as described by Niemiec. 



5. Incertae Sedis. 



Rotifers Parasitic in Sphagnum.f — Mr. W. Milne describes two 

 species of Eotifers found living inside the cells of Sphagnum, and thus 

 confirms observations made nearly forty years ago by Roeper and Morren. 

 These observers supposed the animal they saw to be Bodfer vulgaris, 

 but Mr. Milne designates what he observed as Macrotracliela roeperi sp. n. 

 and M. reclusa sp. u. In three dilferent gatherings of the Sphagnum, at 

 considerable intervals of time, from the same locality, both sj)ecies were 

 found abundantly. The observer believes the distribution of the rotifers 

 in the Sphagnum to be mainly effected by the external openings in the 

 cells, yet one of the forms observed forcing its way out took two or 

 three minutes to escape through the opening. In one case, two adults 

 and an egg were seen in the same cell, which was possibly the result of 

 a breakage between two adjacent cells. There is of course no real 

 parasitism, but the shelter afforded is d <ubtless advantageous. 



American Rotifera.:}: — Dr. D. S. Kellicott gives a jmrtial list of the 

 Eotifera of Shiawassee river at Corunna, Michigan. From the brief 

 examination he was able to make, he was led to the conclusion that the 

 rotiferal fauna of inland America is abundant, and tliat the species are 

 largely identical with those of Europe, even to a grt ater degree than in 

 the case of Infusoria. The author adopts the classification of Hudson 

 and Gosse. 



The new forms described are: — (1) Limnias shiawasseensis ; it has 

 very much longer autenufe then L. annulatus, and has different horny 

 processes and tube ; (2) GEcistes mucicola, which dwells in tubes made 

 in the mucilaginous matrix of the common Alga Gloiotricha pisum ; 

 (3) Callidina soclalis, found parasitic on the larva of the beetle Psephenus 

 Lecontei, has a corona which is relatively wider than that of C. parasitica, 

 and its antenna does not end in three lobes ; and (4) Sacculus hjalinus 

 which is much smaller then <S. viridis. In all, fifty species are 

 enumerated in this list, so the percentage of new forms is very small. 



Tornaria in British Seas.§ — Mr. G. C. Bourne gives an account of 

 the well-known pelagic larva of Balanoglossus, which was for the first 



* Boll. Soc. Nat. Napoli, ii. (1888) pp. 124-30. 

 t Proc. Phil. Soc. Glasgow, 1889, 6 pp. (1 pi.). 

 X Proc. Aiiier. Soo. Micr., x. (1888) pp. 84-96. 

 § Journ. Marine Biol. Assoc, i. (1889) pp. 63-8 (2 pis.). 



