June 29, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



609 



THE " POLYPARIUM AMBULANS." 



A NEW and perplexing marine animal has been 

 ■^^ fished lip in the waters of the Malay Archipelago. 

 La Nature, from whom we borrow the accompanying 

 illustration, gives as its locality the strait separating the 

 islands of Mindanao and Billiton. Here we suspect some 

 clerical or typographical error, since the two islands are 

 at a distance of more than 1,000 miles from each other, 

 with the huge island of Borneo intervening. 



A Dr. Korotncff, who appears to have been the dis- 

 coverer, states that on taking this creature out of the 

 dredge it seemed like a slimy ball, about the size of a 

 chestnut, and of a 3'cl!owish-grey colour. It was 

 marked with spiral circumvolutions, and covered with 



Fig. I. — Polypayiiim aiubulans creeping upon a branch of 

 Gorgona, which serves as a support for a specimen of 

 Tiibnlaria pai'asita. Twice tl;e size of life. 



little tubercles. On putting this substance into a glass 

 it uncoiled, the ball became a kind of fillet of a certain 

 thickness ; the tubercles displayed each a mouth-like 

 orifice, and the entire body began to crawl up the sides 

 of the glass. 



In Fig. I. is a representation of the Polypariuin 

 ambiilans creeping on the branches of a Gorgona of the 

 same locality, with which there is frequently associated a 

 new species of polype to which Dr. Korotneff gives the 

 name of Tiibularia parasifica. This figure shows that 

 the surface of the Polyparium, which is turned inwards 

 when the aniaial is coiled up, is very diflerent from the 

 other. It is upon this surfac; that the animal creeps ; it 

 recalls sornewhat the " foot " of a snail, and still more of 

 3 creeping Holothuria, and may be considered as a 



ventral surface. This surface is marked by two longitu- 

 dinal furrows, which divide it into three parallel bands, 

 the two external being each only half the width of the 

 intermediate. These two lateral bands are not exactly 

 alike, .so the animal is not symmetrical. The inter- 

 mediate band shows series of air-holes, each exactly 

 opposite to one of the nearly spherical tubercles on the 

 dorsal surface. The correspondence of the dorsal 

 tubercles / and the ventral apertures r is shown plainly 

 in Fig. 2, No.'' i, which represents a vertical and longi- 

 tudinal section of a small portion of the Polyparium. 

 In this section we perceive that the band which forms 

 the body is hollow, and that the cavity is divided into 

 successive chambers, /, by transverse partitions, c, 



E ^foy^rt 



•jf A^^ 



Fig. 2. — No. i. Vertical section through two cells oi Polyp<i- 

 rium : b, mouth ; c, septa limiting the transverse cells ; 

 c, interval between two consecutive cells, in which are 

 two septa in course of formation ; /, cavity of the trans- 

 verse cells ; /, thickened transverse bands ; /, pharynx ; 

 ^, cavity of the tubercles; ;■, entodermic folds ; z/, air-hole. 

 No. 2. Transverse section through the upper region of a 

 sea-anemone of the genus Oerianthus. No. 3. Trans- 

 verse section of the upper region of a coralline 

 approaching Alcyoniutn ; c, wall of the body ; /, late- 

 ral cells, even and symmetrical ; //, odd cells ; is, septa 

 between the cells ; g, digestive tube. 



arranged like those which separate from each other the 

 segments of the body of an annelide worm. But there 

 exists an important dift'erence. In an annelide worm 

 the partitions which succeed each other separate 

 chambers, which all resemble each other, and their two 

 surfaces are approximately identical. But here the par- 



