192 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



CONTRIBUTED BY G. K. GUDE, F.Z.S. 



BOLLETTINO DEI MCSEI DI ZOOLOGIA ED AnA- 

 TOMIA COMPARATA DELLA R. UN'IVERSITA DI 



Torino (Turin: xi., 1896). Dr. Guiseppe Paxa- 

 \-icini gives the result of his anatomical and 

 histological researches on the common garden- 

 snail fHelix pomatiaj, in which he deals with the 

 lingual ribbon, radula, and the various muscles in 

 an exhaustive manner. Dr. Achilli GrifBni treats 

 of the Italian Acroceridi, a section of Diptera, figur- 

 ing a new variety of Oncodes marginatus, under the 

 name of var. etruscus. Dr. Daniele Rosa describes 

 two new species of worms, i.e. Allolo'bcphora tigrina 

 and A. exacystis, the former from Mehadia and the 

 latter from Siebenburgen. Dr. Achille Griffini 

 discusses the specific value of Dytiscus disjtindus, 

 and while inchned to the \iew that it is more nearly 

 alhed to D. lapfcnicus than to any other species, yet 

 it differs more from that species than does D. circum- 

 cinciu: from D. marginalis. and he therefore considers 

 D.disjunctus sufiiciently distinct to v,-arrant its being 

 regarded as a separate species ; a figure of a male 

 specimen accompanies the text. ^Nlr. T. Salvadori 

 contributes a catalogue of a collection of birds 

 from the neighbourhood of DeU, Sumatra, 109 

 species being enumerated, with bibliographical 

 references. Professor L. Camerano treats on a 

 skull of CercopitJtecus ruber, with anomalous denti- 

 tion, with four figures in the text. Dr. M. G. 

 Peracca describes two new species of snakes, 

 from South .America, Atractus bouletigerii and 

 A. iridescens, with figures of the heads. The 

 same author catalogues the reptiles and Amphibia 

 collected by Dr. Festa in Darien and Panama. 

 He figures the head of Ptyc/ioglcssus festae, originally 

 described by him in the same v.-ork as Diastemalepis 

 festae, as the t\-pe of a nev,- genus, but further in- 

 vestigation has induced him to include the species 

 in the older genus. He also figures the head of 

 Scolecosaurus fallidiceps, described by Cope in 1862. 

 Dr. Pilippo Silvestri, in enumerating the Chilopoda 

 and Diplopoda collected by Dr. Festa near La 

 Guayra, in Darien and near Cuenca, describes several 

 nev.- species, illustrated with figures in the text. 

 Dr. Peracca further catalogues the reptiles and 

 Amphibia collected near Buluv.-ayo, by the Rev. 

 Luigi Jalla, a missionary on the Upper Zambesi ; 

 one new species of snake, Psammophis jallae, is 

 described and illustrated by two figures. Dr. 

 Filippo Silvestri describes and figures five new 

 species of Diplopoda collected by the same mission- 

 ary. Professor Corrado Pairona and Dr. Yincenzo 

 Ariola each contribute an article on Helminthidae of 

 the Zoological Museum of Turin. 



L'EcKANGE Revue Lixneexne (Lyons : July- 

 November, 1896). Mr. N. Roux enumerates the 

 plants collected during the annual outing of the 

 Botanic Society of Lyons. Mr. Daveau discusses 

 the httoral flora of Portugal. The flora of that 

 country, he informs us, is beginning to be ex- 

 tremely well known, thanks to active researches, 

 especially during the last fifteen years. The 

 littoral zone, v.-ith which the author deals princi- 



pally, comprises an extent of 793 kilometres, which 

 is increased by the vast estuaries joined by 

 the marshes. The Tagus divides the country 

 into two regions, the northern — mountainous, 

 rainy and colder ; the southern — dryer, with 

 plains predominating. The differences, however, 

 are less accentuated over the littoral zone 

 on account of the neighbourhood of the sea. 

 ]SIr. Mollerat gives the results of dredgings carried 

 out along the coast of Saint-Raphael (Dept. Var), 

 at depths of thirty to seventy metres. Mr. Maurice 

 Pie contributes a long list of habitats of Ptinidae, of 

 North Africa, which does not profess to be exhaus- 

 tive, since he does not enumerate all the species 

 known to occur in that region, nor does he give all 

 the habitats knov.-n for those he enumerates, thej- 

 are simply cited from the specimens in his collec- 

 tion ; a total of fifty-three species and fifteen varie- 

 ties is given. ^Ir. Arnould Locard discusses Helix 

 intersecta and its allied forms. It appears that HeUx 

 cfl/fratfl, described byMcJntague in i8o3,in"Testacea 

 Britannica," is the same shell as Helix intersecta, 

 described two 5-ears previously by Poiret in 

 " Coquilles flu^'iatilis et terrestres de I'Aisne," the 

 latter name has, therefore, precedence. Four other 

 forms, closeh' allied, and forming v.-ith the type 

 species a natural group, are described in detail. 

 They are all members of the French fauna, and 

 are, according to Mr. Locard, very little under- 

 stood, a remark which we can fully endorse ; thej' 

 are, in fact, likely to remain so. 



La Feuilles des Jeunes Natur.\listes (Paris ; 

 October and November, 1S96). M. Cossman con- 

 tributes an extensive and valuable summary of 

 works on Paleoconchology. A new land-shell is re- 

 corded for the French fauna by E. :Margier, who 

 found Pupa rnaiiUeti at Briancon, in the Hautes 

 Alpes. M. Guignon gives an illustration of a 

 monstrosity of Helix liorteyisis, in which the upper 

 left tentacle is bifurcate, each branch bearing 

 an e3-e and each being independently retractile. 

 Mr. C. Da\"ies Sherbom contributes an exhaustive 

 report on work done and changes carried out in the 

 British Museum. Mr. Gustave DoUfus contributes 

 an instructive article " On the Delimitation of the 

 Species of Animals." In summarising a v,-ork by 

 Mr. G. Coutagne, on " Researches on the Polymor- 

 phism of the ^vlollusca of France," he draws 

 special attention to the useless creation of innu- 

 merable species by the new French school of 

 conchologists, foimded by the late Mr. Bourguignat, 

 and still continued by several of his followers. It 

 is worthy of note that Mr. Coutagne knows per- 

 fectly the species (?) created by Mr. Bourguignat, 

 and has studied equalh- those of Mr. Locard and 

 others of the same school, ha\ Ing had their tj-pes 

 in his own hands, and that he has received, under 

 different names, specimens absolutelj- identical and 

 from the same locality. To give but one instance 

 of the useless multiplication of so-called species, 

 we may mention that under the synonymy of Helix 

 striata no less than twenty-seven names are 

 enumerated which have from time to time been 

 raised to specific rank. In expressing the hope 

 that Mr. Coutagne v.ill render the ser\-ice to science 

 of producing a real catalogue of the terrestrial and 

 flu\-iatile mollusca, v.hich can %'.ith certainty be 

 recognised in France, a hope that %\ill be echoed 

 by ever}' malacologist who has the real interest 

 of his favourite study at heart, we welcome 

 this well-timed protest by tv,-o eminent Frenchmen 

 as a sign of reaction against the per\-ersion of 

 science. 



