332 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
in many points A. lumhricoides, but tbe cellular layer of the 
intestine forms high folds, and a longer caecal sac is connected with the 
oesophagus. Three other Nematodes are also noticed. 
y. Platyhelminthes. 
Australian Land Planarian.* — Mr. A. Dendy gives an account of 
the anatomy of Geoplana spenceri, a new land Planarian remarkable for 
the intense blue colour of its ventral surface. We are not justified as 
yet in recognizing more than two genera of Australian land Planarians, 
Geoplana with many, and Wiynchodesmus with only two eyes. It 
has been lately observed by Mr. C. C. Brittlebank that these creatures 
live on animal food, as Moseley has already urged. 
Fresh-water Triclades have the superficial muscular system more 
highly developed and containing more layers than the terrestrial forms ; 
on the other hand, the latter have a much more extensive deep muscular 
system than the former ; this is, doubtless, in correlation with the 
changed habitat and the thicker form of body. 
The lining e^^ithelium of the alimentary canal consists primitively 
of a single layer of amoeboid cells which take in and digest food-par- 
ticles. At the anterior end of the alimentary canal whither, probably, 
only a little food can find its way, the cells retain their amoeboid 
character and remain in a single layer. Nearer the mouth, where there 
is more food to be digested, the cells become so numerous that they are 
set in irregular heaps. As they become densely charged with granules 
(excretory products) and their protoplasm dwindles away they become 
mere thin- walled bags, full of granules ; the wall of the cell ruptures 
and the granules are discharged into the alimentary canal and are ejected 
through the mouth. The author gives a careful account of the views of j)re- 
ceding writers and of his own observations on the rhabdites ; as to their 
function he suggests only that they may make their possessor extremely 
unpalatable, and may also serve to increase the stickiness of the slime. 
All the organs of the body are described in detail. 
New Land Planarians from Sunda Islands. t — Dr. J. C. C. Loman 
describes the land Planarians found by Prof. M. Weber in his travels in 
Java and Sumatra. Fourteen new species, two of which belong to 
Bipalium, two to Geoplana, and two to Bhynchodesmus, are described. 
B. epliippium, G. nasuta, and B. megalopJitJiahnus were subjected to a 
close anatomical investigation, the results of which are here given. The 
genus Doliclioplana Moseley does not j>resent sufficient differences in 
its musculature from Bhynchodesmus to justify us in regarding it as 
distinct. The eye of this last genus presents structural characters which 
indicate that it is of much higher organization than the ordinary 
Turbellarian eye. On the whole the anatomical characters of these 
three genera are strikingly similar. 
Interpretation of Cestodes.t — Prof. C. Claus discusses the morpho- 
logical and phylogenetic interpretation of tapeworms. Starting from 
Caryophyllseus, which he regards as homologous with a Trematode, he 
* Trans. Roy. Soc. Victoria, 1889, pp. 50-94 (4 pis.). 
f ‘Zoologische Ergebuisse einer Reise in Niederlandisch-Ost-Indien, heraus- 
gegeben von Dr. Max Weber,’ T>eidcn, Heft i. (1890) pp. 131-58 (2 pis.). 
X Arbeit. Zool. Inst. Univ. Wien (Claus), viii. (1889) pp. 313-26. 
