Radiata. 5151 



came to be really examined, they were invariably thrust further away from each 

 other: it was, he contended, the same through the whole of Creation. 



Mr. Lubbock could not admit that such links never occurred, and mentioned the 

 two large genera of Crustacea, Calanus and Pontella, as affording species which 

 apparently militated against Mr. Waterhouse's views. 



Mr. Wollaston observed that, a few years ago, Carabus and Calosoma were 

 considered as well-defined genera, but of late the discovery of new species had so 

 linked them that it now was impossible to separate them. 



A conversation ensued on the variation of species, as apparently produced by 

 climate and lapse of time, in the course of which Mr. Westwood observed that it 

 would be interesting to know whether the animal remains found in mummies, &c, 

 were the same species as at present exist in a living state. 



M. Milne-Edwards said that the Ibis found embalmed with mummies was 

 identical with the existing species. 



Mr. Stainton read a paper intituled ' Observations on Genera.' — E. S 



Note on Serpula contoriuplicala and on a Species of Othonia. — The inquiry in 

 the last number of the 'Zoologist' (Zool. 5414) respecting the loss of the operculum 

 in Serpula contortuplicata may be readily answered by many persons who have 

 kept this elegant worm in confinement. It is by no means an uncommon occurrence 

 for this species to lose the beautiful stopper with which, by an extraordinary 

 development of apparently one of its tentacula, it is enabled to close its tube on 

 the approach of danger. I have had one instance of this falling off in my own 

 tank, and others have occurred iu those of the Zoological Society, as well as in 

 the large collection that Mr. Lloyd, of Portland Road, has generally by him ; 

 in some cases a perfect reproduction of the lost parts has taken place after a few 

 weeks, and the animals have continued alive and healthy. I should imagine the 

 cause of this shedding of the operculum to be the weak state of the worm, induced 

 perhaps by an insufficient supply of its natural food, in which case the sudden 

 withdrawal of the body might produce an unwonted strain on the stopper, and 

 a separation would take place. As in most of the lower animals, there would be a 

 tendency to restore the injured parts, and the time taken in perfecting them would 

 probably depend on the strength of the creature. I find that the branchial plumes of 

 the Serpula are broken and destroyed in the same manner, and apparently from a 

 similar cause. Anything relating to the habits of a class so little generally 

 understood as the Annelida being of interest, I am induced to mention a cir- 

 cumstance that I observed last week, and which to me was quite new, although 

 perhaps known to others. A little worm of the genus Othonia, one of the Sabellidas, 

 was seen slowly crawling along the front glass of my tank ; it gradually ascended 

 to the surface of the water, and, after moving on the top to a distance of about four 

 inches from the glass, began to sink very slowly, the body hanging perpendicularly, 

 with the branchiae upwards, the plumes being closely pressed together; the similarity 

 of its appearance and manner to a caterpillar hanging by a thread induced me to try 

 if the same means of support existed in the present case, and the passage of a small 

 stick at about two inches above the worm, between it and the surface, at once settled 



