1064 General Notes. [ December, 
actinochrome is regarded as decorative and is always confined to 
the tentacles. Another pigment is found in the eye spots which 
has a spectrum bearing some resemblance to that of a red pig- 
ment found in the eyes of certain insects. Hickson has ob- 
tained the early stages of Tubipora. It is regularly holoblastic 
and there is an invaginate gastrula. He has also made some 
observations on a species of Clavularia from Celebes which go to 
show that this genus is closely allied to the fossil Sy1ingopora, 
thus adding to the evidence that the latter is an Alcyonarian 
The absence of special buds or gonophores to contain the sexual 
products of Hydra is by Professor A. M. Marshall regarded 
as a highly modified character due to the influence of fresh water. 
In Cordylophora, the other fresh-water genus, the ova develop in 
a zone of germination round the necks of the zodids, before either 
the gonophore or the branch on which it will be borne is de- 
veloped. Afterwards the ova migrate into the gonophore. 
Evidently Cordylophora is in course of suffering a transformation 
into sexual conditions like those of Hydra. The normal 
Hydroida are bisexual and develop Medusz. 
Echinoderms,—According to recent researches by R. Koehler, 
the circulatory system of the ophiurans is much like that of the 
Echinoidea, the same relations being found in the madreporic 
gland, the rings around the mouth and the branches arising 
from them. : 
Worms—A. Giard described a new Rhabdoccele, Fecampia 
erythroctphala, at the meeting of the Academy of Sciences of 
Paris, September 13. It is parasitic and forms a cocoon. Atten- 
tion was called to the fact that it resembles a parasite found by 
Lang in the foot of the mollusk, Tethys, which will probably also 
be found to form a cocoon. Professor W. C. McIntosh, in 
Nature, of September 16, thinks that Phoronis and Actinotrocha 
are more abundant on the British coasts than the records wo l 
indicate——G, Fritsch, in the Sitzungsberichte of the Berlin 
Academy (Jan. 28, 1886, p. 99), describes and figures the parasites 
of the electrical cat-fish Malapterurus. The novelties are Corallo- 
bothrium solidum, nov. gen. et. sp., Tenia malapteruri and a nema- 
tode, Zrichosomum papillosum. Schoyen describes, in the 
Christiania Forhandlingar for 1885, a new species of trematode, 
Tylenchus hordei, which forms galls on the roots of grass in which 
the eggs are deposited Dieffenbach, has an anatomical and 
systematical paper on Oligochzte worms in the Bericht of the 
Oberhessichen Gesellschaft for 1886. He describes the anatomy 
of Lumbriculus variegatus and of the Tubificidæ, and has notes 
upon the Naids. A new genus, Pseudolumbriculus, and two new 
species, Ps. claparedianus and Pachydrilus lumosus are described. 
Sluiter has a paper on the Gephyreans of the Malay el 
pelago in the Tijdschrift of the Dutch East India Society, VO 
886). The paper enumerates thirty species as known 
