58 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



antennae where the tactile rods are placed in many Crustacea. They 

 not improbably have an olfactory function here. 



New Genus and Species of Lyncodaphnidae.* — Mr. C. L. Herrick 

 describes Lyncodaphnia macrothroides from Lake Minnetonka, Minne- 

 sota, the form of which is much as in species of AloneUa, &c. : 

 truncate behind ; superior antennae like Macrothrix, attached movably 

 to the end of a blunt prominence beneath the head ; second or swim- 

 ming antennae slender, four-jointed ramus with three long setae and 

 a stout thorn at the end of distal segment, the joint following the 

 short basal one with a thorn above, the following joint unarmed ; 

 three-jointed ramus as in Macrothrix, the basal segment armed with 

 a much-elongated seta ; eye relatively small, pigment-fleck (macula 

 nigra) present ; intestine twice convoluted, expanded in front of the 

 rectum, opening in the " heel " of the post-abdomen ; post-abdomen 

 slender, siibtriangular, margined behind with a double series of 

 spines ; terminal claws large, and fm-nished with a long and short 

 spine near the base ; shell margined below by stout movable spines. 



Few more interesting forms than the one forming the type of this 

 very peculiar genus have been found, since it combines in a curious 

 manner those characteristics hitherto regarded as distinctive of the 

 families Daphnidae and Lynceidae. Kurz says.j " Keine Cladoceren- 

 familie bildet eine so strong in sich abgegrenztes natiirliches Ganze, 

 wie eben die Lynceiden," and this after recognizing the relationship 

 of Macrothrix and Lathonura to the Lynceids, by placing them in the 

 subfamily Lyncodaphnidae. The form above referred to, however, has 

 quite as close affinity to the Lynceidae as to 3Iacrothrix, though it 

 resembles the latter rather more on a superficial examination ; indeed, 

 if one were to divide the animal back of the heart and examine the 

 two portions independently, it would be impossible to avoid referring 

 the head to Macrothrix and the body to some Lynceid genus. Thus 

 is furnished another of those curious intermediate forms which 

 remind us that the possibility of distinguishing families and genera, 

 lies alone in the meagreness of our knowledge. 



There can be no doubt that this genus should stand next to 

 Macrothrix, but it will be necessary to modify a little the diagnosis 

 of the Lyncodaphnidae to receive it, and it then appears that it 

 cannot longer remain a subfamily of the Daphuid^, hence Mr. Herrick 

 proposed to give it equal rank with that body and the Lynceids as an 

 independent family, Lyncodaphnidae, including the genera Macrothrix, 

 Lyncodaphnia, Drepanothrix, Lathonura [= Pasithea), Ilyocryptus. As 

 thus limited a very natural group is formed, in size and isolation 

 corresponding well with the other related families. 



Vermes. 

 Tubes of Sabellidae.J — E. Mace, struck by the great diversity of 

 these structures in so homogeneous a group as the tubicolous 



* Amer. Natural., xvi. (1882) pp. 1006-7 (1 pi.). 



t ' Dodekas neuer Cladocereu ucbst cinem kurzen Uebersicht dtr Cladoceren- 

 fauna Bohmens,' p. 'M. 



J Arch. Zonl, Expc'r. ct Gen., x. (1882) pp. ix-xiv. 



