EDITOKIAL NOTES. 



This Volume contains Parts XLIV., XLV., XL VI., and XLVII. of the 



Zoological Series of Reports on the Scientific Results of the Expedition. 



Part XLIV.— Professor T. H. Huxley at one time proposed to undertake 

 the description of the Cephalopoda brought home by the Expedition. His 

 many engagements, however, compelled him to give up this intention, so far 

 as regards the whole collection, but he retained, and is now engaged in the 

 preparation of a Report on, the genus Spieula. The remainder of the 

 Cephalopod collection was placed in the hands of Mr. W. E. Hoyle, in 

 1883, soon after his appointment as Naturalist on the Editorial Staff of 

 the Challenger Reports. 



The results of Mr. tloyle's investigations are given in this part, which, in 

 addition to the description of many new forms, will be found to contain an 

 able revision of our knowledge of existing species up to the present time. 



Part XLV. — The collections of Stomatopoda were placed in the hands of 

 Professor W. K. Brooks of Johns Hopkins University, for examination and 

 description, some years after the return of the Expedition. The collections 

 contained few adult specimens, but were rich in larval forms obtained at the 

 surface of the ocean in many different localities, by means of tow-nets. 

 Professor Brooks has thus been enabled to make a more extensive survey than 

 heretofore of the relations between larva3 and adults, and to elucidate many 

 points in their complicated life history. The Report thus forms a valuable 

 contribution to a difficult subject, and will be welcomed by all Naturalists. 



