80 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



New Fresh-water Infusoria.— A. C. Stokes has * changed the 

 generic name SoJenatus, given by him to a new genus of Infusoria,| 

 to Notosclenns, the former name being preoccupied. 



Infusoria of the Gulf of Naples.^ — The Infusoria of the Gulf of 

 Naples are treated of by G. Entz, in an elaborate memoir illustrated 

 by a great number of plates. A list of seventy-one species found in 

 the gulf is given at the commencement of the jiaper, which contains 

 more or less full descrijitions of about one-half of these. TLe paper 

 concludes with some interesting remarks on the distribution of 

 marine Infusoria, and the results to which the author has been led 

 may be stated as follows : — 



1. The infusorian fauna of the sea is strikingly different from 

 that of fresh water ; the two faunas have only a few species in 

 common. 



2. A considerable number of marine Infusoria are also found in 

 salt land lakes. 



3. The infusorian fauna of different seas is not more strikingly 

 different than that of fresh waters of different regions. 



This last conclusion differs considerably from that of Meresch- 

 kowsky, who stated that, while the fresh-water Infusoria i^resented 

 but little diversity from whatever region they came, there was a 

 noticeable difference in the case of the marine forms. 



The number of new species described is sixteen, and of these, 

 three form the types of as many new genera — Stephanopogon colpoda, 

 Ultahdodon falcatus, and Onychodacfylus acrohates. 



S. colpoda is one of the most interesting types of the Ciliata ; it 

 has the form of a somewhat flattened flask with longitudinal bauds 

 which run in a slightly diagonal direction ; along these bands the 

 cilia are developed ; a portion of the body, partly dorsal and partly 

 ventral, is without the bands, and the animal cannot therefore bo 

 definitely classed with the Holotricha or the Hypotricha ; at the 

 truncated extremity round the mouth is a circlet of pointed cilium- 

 like processes united at their bases ; these are capable of movement ; 

 the neck has upon one side a series (four or eight) of hyaline groove- 

 like structures which appear to be a sj^ecial development of the hyaline 

 ground-substance. There are two contractile vaciioles ; the nucleus 

 is horseshoe-shaped, and lies on the right-hand side of the body ; 

 occasionally the nucleus is spherical, with a crenated margin; this 

 condition may be preparatory to fission. The genus belongs to the 

 family Colepiua. 



It. falcatus may jiossibly be the same as Dujardin's Loxodes 

 marinus ; the form of the body is not fixed, but may be longer or 

 shorter according to the state of contraction ; the oesophageal tube 

 has the appearance of being composed of sixteen rod-like bodies, and 

 the mouth therefore appears as an oval aperture surrounded by a 

 radiately striated ring ; there is an anal aperture opening in common 

 with the contractile vacuole. The nucleus is oval or spindle-shaped. 



* Amer. Journ. Sci., xxviii. (1884) p. 158. 



t See this Journal, iv. (1884) p. 907. 



X MT. Zool. Stat. Neapel, v. (1884) pp. 289-444 (6 pis.). 



