4898 Mollusks — Arachnida — Insects. 



second volume of the ' British Fishes,' a creature so jelly-like that the great naturalist 

 Pallas actually considered it a slug' ; but the lancelet is regarded as a cartilaginous fish, 

 while these novelties are osseous, and belong to the genera Leptocephalus, Helmicthys, 

 Hioprorus and Telurus.— Id. 



The supposed Male of the Argonaut. — In 1842 Professor Kolliker found, respectively 

 on Tremoctopus violaceus and Argonauta Argo, two worm-like creatures closely re- 

 sembling the Hectocotyle Octopodis described by Cuvier* as found on Octopus granu- 

 losus. In 1845 the learned professor communicated to Robert Brown his belief that these 

 were neither more nor less than the males of the Cephalopoda on which he found them. 

 At first sight the professor took them for epizootic worms, to which, from their white 

 colour and numerous suckers, they bore a great resemblance ; but when he examined 

 them more accurately he found so many peculiarities, as the existence of a heart, 

 arteries and veins, branchiae, and coloured contractile pigment-cells, that at length he 

 was compelled to abandon this opinion and adopt one widely different, namely, that 

 they were the males of the most highly organized of all mollusks. In favour of this 

 conclusion he urged that Hectocotyle Argonautae and H. Tremoctopodis bear a close 

 resemblance to Cephalopoda in general, and in particular to the genera on which they 

 live, for they have the same spermatozoa, contractile pigment-cells, similarly-formed and 

 similarly-organized suckers, and the same arrangement of muscular fibres: again, as 

 to sex, 280 Argonauts examined were females, a male has never been found ; the 

 Hectocotylae are males only, and are always found in the neighbourhood of the sexual 

 organs of the Argonauts ; finally, according to the observations of Madame Power and 

 Signor Maravigna, the eggs of the Argonaut contain embryo Hectocotylae : the last 

 fact seems conclusive in favour of the professor's theory. The foregoing facts have 

 been familiar to all English naturalists for the last ten years. At the recent meeting 

 of the British Association Professor Kolliker exhibited specimens of Hectocotyle, 

 curious eight-armed creatures, with one arm enormously developed, and said to retain 

 vitality long after separation from the animal. — Edward Newman. 



Scorpion taken at Dorchester. — I lately saw a scorpion taken at Dorchester by the 

 Curator of our Museum there; but on inquiry I found it was captured at the bone- 

 mills, and, as foreign bones are often imported for manure, its introduction seems 

 easily accounted for. — J. C. Dale ; Glanville^s Wootton, near Sherborne, September 18, 

 1855. 



A List of a few rather interesting Lepidoptera that have occurred in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Plymouth : — 



Thecla Betulae. September 12th, flying about oak trees. 



Deilephila Galii. September 5th, a full-fed larva of this species was taken in the 

 garden of Admiralty House, Devonport, by the gardener, who states that a few days 

 previously he took two others of the same species, but fearing they would injure the 

 plants he cut them to pieces. Mr. Dell, of Devonport, is the fortunate possessor of 

 this rare larva. It changed to the pupa the following day. 



* * Annalcs dcs Sciences Naturelles,' 1st Series, vol. xviii. p. 149, date 1829. 



