SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
335 
of which number thirty were stated to be peculiar to the continent of 
Africa ; and two to Madagascar and the adjacent islands. Two species only 
were common to India and Africa, and the remaining four were migratory 
throughout the Palae arctic and ^Ethiopian regions. 
The Prosedorsliip in the Zoological Society. — It is rumoured, and we 
believe with some foundation, that this post, vacant by the retirement of 
Dr. James Murie, is not likely to be filled up for some considerable time. 
Dimorphism in the Higher Worms. — The American Naturalist for March 
gives an abstract of M. Claparede’s observations on the Annelids, published 
in the Bibliotheque universelle. It states that in his account of the Annelids 
of the Gulf of Naples he confirms the discovery of Malmgren, that Hetero- 
nereis is a form of the old genus Nereis. He states that Ehlers, in 1867, in 
his Die Borstemuiirmer , a work on the higher Annelids, has shown the 
imdoubted specific unity of Nereis cultrifera and Heteronereis lobulata ; of 
Nereis pelagica , and Heteronereis grandifolia ; of Nereis Dumerilii and 
Heteronereis fucicola ; of Nereis vexillosa , and Heteronereis Middendorjii ; of 
Nereis fucata and Heteronereis glaucopis, and another Heteronereis form to 
Nereis Agassizii and Nereis virens. He thinks the Nereids are transformed 
into Heteronereids at the time of sexual maturity. Claparede states, how- 
ever, that all the species of Nereis do not have a Heteronereid form, as the 
species of Nereis far exceed in number those of the so-called genus Hetero- 
nereis. He thus concludes : u The fact of animals presenting two sexual 
forms is not entirely new. The beautiful observations of MM. Leuckart 
and Mecznikow, and those of M. Schneider on the Ascaris nigrovenosa, have 
made us acquainted with analogous cases among the Nematodes, where 
one of the generations, it is true, is hermaphrodite, and the other presents 
separate sexes. But, among the Acalephs, certain Geryonidse ( Carma - 
rind), according to M. Haeckel, and among the Nematodes, the Leptodei'a 
appendiculata , according to M. Claus, present two sexual forms, for each 
of which ‘ gonochorisme ’ is the rule. The history of the Axolotls, which 
M. Dumeril has acquainted us with, offers certain points of analogy with 
that of Nereis Dumerilii 
Monstrosities among Infusoria. — Mr. J. G. Tatem has described and 
figured some very curious examples of the teratology of the Infusoria. Both 
the account and the figures will be found in the Monthly Microscopical 
Journal for April. The first figure shows a Trachelias anas, in which the 
lip, or brow (as it is sometimes called), is inordinately prolonged, somewhat 
spirally coiled, and clothed with longer and stouter cilia than usual. There 
is also shown a Chilodon cucullulus, where there is also a monstrous develop- 
ment of the same part, the lip projecting into an elongated proboscis-like 
appendage, which, as seen waving to and fro, and twisting with every move- 
ment of the animal, presented a singularly grotesque appearance. In con- 
trast with the two preceding there is a charming VoHicella. Elegant and 
attractive as are the several species of Vorticellce, it surpasses them all in 
beauty, and it is with reluctance only that the author could be brought to 
regard it as a monstrosity. Met with on several occasions and in widely 
distant localities, he may fairly question if it may not rather claim the 
importance of a named variety, under that of Vorticella convaliana, var. 
monilata. 
