360 General Notes. 
ZOOLOGICAL NEws.—EcuinopErMs.—The habitat of the star- 
fish, Echinaster decanus Müller und Troschel, has not been known. 
Lately it has been dredged of Port Jackson, Australia. ` Professor 
F. Jeffrey Bell, in an account of the specimens, states that the 
species is remarkable for the large size of the pore areas, in which 
there are a large number of respiratory processes, and hence con- 
cludes that it lives in situations where respiration under ordinary 
circumstances would be difficult. 
The brothers Sarasin have a note on the longitudinal muscles 
and “ Stewart’s organs ” in the Echinothuride, in the Zool. Anzeiger, 
No. 273. The long muscles are of use in the vermicular move- 
ments of Asthenosoma. Concerning the function of “ Stewart’s 
organs,” they have no opinion to offer. 
Fifty species of Echinoderms, twenty-two Holothurians, thirteen 
Asteroids, six Ophiuroids, and nine Echini, have been collected at 
the Andaman Islands by Mr. Booley. 
Worms.—Mr. F. E. Beddard continues his notes on the earth- 
worms. In the Zool. Anzeiger, No. 272, he states that the “ mucous 
gland” described by Perrier in Urochzta “ consists of a tube open- 
ing on to the exterior by a single orifice and branching distally into 
a number of tubules, each of which opens into the ccelom by a cili- 
ated funnel,” these funnels being disposed irregularly, and not 
metamerically. 
n another note in the same number he describes briefly the sali- 
vary glands and capsulogenous glands in Pericheta. The former 
he regards as homologous ofthe septal glands of other Oligocheetes. 
The capsulogenous glands, it is hoped, will furnish good characters 
for the discrimination of the species of this difficult genus. 
Dr. Frederick Tuckermann notes a specimen of Tenia saginata 
of unusual size. Only a portion of the worm was obtained, but this 
consisted of 711 segments, and measured 7.455 metres in length. 
Comparison with other specimens led to an estimate that the whole 
worm consisted of about 1060 joints, and a total length of 7.655 
metres. 
According to Mr. R. Moniez, the eysticercus of the Tenebrios 
does not belong to Tenia nana, but, as is proved by the length and 
the number of its hooks, to Tenia microstoma, a species parasitic 
within the mouse. T. nana and T. murina constitute two distinct 
species, and the latter develops in the intestine of the rat without 
an intermediate host. . 
ARACHNIDA.—Duges describes (Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1888) a - 
new species of mite, Geckobia oblonga, which occurs, parasitic, upon 
the lizard, Scoleporus spinosus. The species is noticeable for the 
elongate organs, of problematical functions, which arise on either 
side above the base of the rostrum, They have an appendicular 
