548 _ General Notes. [May, 
ZooLocicaL Notes.—Pyrotozoans.—Professor Haeckel, in a re- 
cent paper (Sitz. Jenaischen Gesell. für Med. und Wiss., 1883) 
divides the Radiolaria into four orders: Acantharia, Spumellaria, 
Nassellaria and Phzodaria. The first are distinguished by their 
organic acanthine skeleton, and never have a true silicious skel- 
eton. On the whole, they correspond to the Acanthometre of 
J. Miller, but include part of the Haliomma.  Actinelius, in 
which the central capsule is pierced by numerous simple, in 
nitely arranged spicules meeting in its center, seems to be th 
ancestral form, and to have arisen immediately from Actinospher- 
um by the hardening of the firmer axial fibers into spicules. The 
Spumellaria have no acanthine skeleton, but their central capsule 
is pierced on all sides by fine pores. The ancestral form i$ 
Actissa, the simplest possible Radiolarian. The Nassellaria have 
a simple area of pores at one end of the capsule axis. The skel- 
etonless Cystidium inerme is regarded as an ancestral form, from 
which others were derived by the development of a silicious skel- 
eton. The Phzodaria surpass all other Radiolarians in a 
singularity of form. The skeleton is usually composed of hollow 
silicious tubes. The common characteristic of the whole mart 
the pheodium, a dark body of pigment, lying excentrically Pane 
the central capsule. The ancestral form is the skeletonless 
ina. r the 
Celenterates—Dr. von Martens reports, from a letter pa 
African traveler, Dr. R. Böhm, that a jelly-fish has been pre 
ered in Lake Tanganyika. It belongs to the Craspedote m ai 
has a small, short, broad stomach, while the tentacles are 
numerous and of unequal length. esaat ou 
Ma i ssian SOCIE 
Polyzoans——The memoirs of the Novoro tions between 
the Endoproct and Ectoproct Polyzoa. In the Sof the earth- 
Paris, M. de Lacaze-Duthiers presented a note 7 
upon the operculum of the Gasteropoda. his in 
come to the conclusion, contrary to what 
that the entire surface of the foot does not take pa iland clearly : 
duction of the operculum, which is secreted by a sma 
limited portion of the epithelium. This m of the 
seems to be of a different nature from that of the byssus 
Acephala which is formed by a well-develope 
considerable part of the volume of the foot. 
carried on partly at the laboratory of Banyuls o from Rov 1 
at the laboratory of l'Ecole Normale, with anim x 
Crustaceans —The transformations of a Roar has occupied ] 
mode of fixation are, according to M. Ives Delage, 
nd, occupying? 
