ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
475 
described by Max Scbultze as the spawn of the lobworm were really so. 
This doubt had been previously expressed by Messrs J. T. Cunningham 
and G. A. Ramage, who reared the ova from these balls, and found that 
the larvae had not the characters of Arenicola , but perhaps of Scoloplos 
armiger. 
Dr. Cl. Hartlaub, in Heligoland, reared the larvae to a slightly more 
advanced stage, and Ehlers abandons any idea of their belonging to 
Arenicola. 
Mr. E. A. Andrews has recently described a free-swimming young 
Arenicola (A. antillensis ?) from the American coast. 
Dr. Hartlaub has also discovered this pelagic stage off Heligoland, 
and a brief description is given. 
The fishermen say that the lobworm sometimes swims freely, and 
Dr. Ehrenbaum has recently corroborated this statement. It seems then 
as if the adults led an active life for some part of the year. That the 
young are pelagic has been placed beyond doubt. Prof. Ehlers points 
out the importance of following up the quest. 
Supporting Tissue of the Nervous System.* — Herr E. Wawrzik 
finds four distinct modes in which the nerve-chord, or, more strictly, its 
supporting tissue, is related to the subcuticula. (1) In Sigalion , 
Sthenclais, Polynoe , &c , the connection persists along the entire length 
of the body. (2) In Holla , Cirrhatulus, Ac., the connection is reduced 
to a longitudinal strand. (3) In Arenicola , Eunice , &c., the connection 
is by means of relatively thin strands, which occur at intervals. (4) In 
Hermione, Aphrodite , and the Oligochasta the subcuticular fibrous tissue 
has formed a cuticular membrane surrounding the nerve-cord and 
separating it from the subcuticula, except at the tail end. At different 
parts of the body different modes may obtain. The supporting tissue is 
a modification of the subcuticula ; it not only ensheaths the nervous 
elements, but penetrates them, passing into their spongioplasma. 
New Species of Nais.f — Dr. W. B. Benham has a note on a new 
species of this genus, found in a ditch near Oxford ; N. Jieterochseta, as 
it is called, has, as a rule, only two chaetae in each dorsal bundle ; and 
these are of different shape and size ; one is capilliform and about 
*165 mm. long, and the other is furcate and measures *045 mm. 
The nephridia present a peculiarity which, though already described, 
has hardly been sufficiently insisted on ; the fact, that is, that there is 
usually only one nephridium per somite. This is always the case in 
N. heterochseta, where the nephridium is very long, so that one often 
occupies two somites, and communicates with a third by a funnel. In 
such cases there is one nephridium in the place of four. Michaelsen, 
it will be remembered, has described in Kynotus the presence of nephridia 
in alternate somites. 
Anatomy of Sutroa.J— Mr. F. E. Beddard has some notes on this 
freshwater Oligochaste, supplementary to the description of Dr. Eisen, 
who alone has before this worked at the genus. The author has chiefly 
directed his attention to the generative organs which he has investigated 
* Zool. Beitr., iii. (1892) pp. 107-27. 
t Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., xxxiv. (1893) pp. 383-6 (1 pi.). 
X Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., xxxvii. (1893) pp. 195-202 (1 pi.). 
2 L 
1893. 
