34 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
B. Myriopoda. 
Anatomy of Chilopoda.* * * § — Herr B. Scliaufler gives an account of the 
generative organs of Lithohius, Cryptops, and Geopliilus ; the author 
dilfers in a number of important points from Fabre. Glands which have 
a certain relation to the receptacula seminis are always well developed ; 
they are inferior to another pair of glands which vary in the extent to 
which they are developed, and which may have the function of pro- 
viding protective envelopes for the ova against external influences. The 
feeble development of the glands in Cryptops and Geopliilus may per- 
haps be made up for by the care of the young which the members of 
these genera exhibit. It is difiScult to speak with any certainty as to 
the habits of these shy and nocturnal animals, but it is very probable 
that copulation does obtain among the Chilopoda. 
Structure of Gizzard in Scolopendridae.f — I)r. V. Willem finds 
that in Scolopendra, Scolopocrypfops, Cryptops, and, probably, in other 
genera of the Scolopendridas there is a gizzard which has the same 
fundamental constitution as that of Insects. In Scolopendra it has a 
thick muscular wall, the interior of which is grooved by projecting 
longitudinal folds ; on these there is a crown of protuberances directed 
forward, and formed by the chitinogenous layer and the cuticle of the 
anterior intestine. The form of the protuberances varies in different 
species. 1\\ Scolopocryptops andi Cryptops the gizzard is an ovoid swelling 
of the buccal intestine, provided internally with chitinous processes 
which are directed towards the oesophagus. The armature of the organ 
is most complicated in Cryptops, with which nothing among Insects but 
that of Corethra plumicornis can be compared. 
S. Arachnida. 
Parasite of the Slug.| — M. P. Megnin describes an Acarid which 
appears to have been known for a long time as parasitic on the grey 
slug (Limax). It is identified as Ereynetes limacium, is included in the 
family Trombidiidee beside the genus Tydeus, and has a near relative in 
the orange-coloured Ereynetes velox which infests dung-eating insects. 
The parasite of the slug is blind, of a white colour, and moves with 
rapidity on its host. The females, males, nymphs, and hexapod larvae 
are described. They seem to live on the mucus of the slug, and ought, 
perhaps, to be called commensals. 
Anatomy of Pentastomida.§ — Herr E. Lohrmann gives an account 
of the anatomy of the Pentastomida. Contrary to Leuckart, he finds 
that the outer soft chitinous investment is distinctly striated, for sec- 
tions show an alternation of lighter and darker bands, of which, in some 
parts there may (in P. tsenioides^ be as many as twenty. In the harder 
parts of the cuticle, such as the hooks and their supporting plates, there 
is no striation, but there are a number of small irregular spaces which 
are sometimes arranged in rows or layers. The author does not alto- 
* Abh. Zool.-Bot. Gesell. Wien, xxxix. (1889) pp. 465-77. 
t Bull. Soc. Acad. Eoy. de Belgique, lix. (1889) pp. 532-46 (1 pi.). 
X Journ. Auat. et Physiol. (Robin), xxv. (1889) pp. 570-2 (1 fig.). 
§ Arch. f. Naturgesch., Iv. (1889) pp. 303-37 (1 pi.). 
