ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETO. 
627 
e. Crustacea. 
Indian Carcinology.* — Prof. J. R. Henderson’s memoir, which deals 
only with Decapod and Stomatopod Crustacea, contains identifications 
of 289 species, thirty-three of which are new ; two are regarded as the 
types of new genera. Several species are shown to be synonymous with 
others. The author gives an interesting account of the nature of the 
ground from which he himself has collected specimens. Large numbers 
were obtained by divers, who brought to the surface blocks of coral, in 
the crevices of which, or on the branches of which, many Crustacea are 
to be found. The Indian Crustacean fauna is that of the Indo-Pacifie 
area generally, and it is doubtful whether there is a single genus con- 
fined to or characteristic of India. 
Nearly two-thirds of the total number of species described in the 
present memoir are known from the seas of the Malay Archipelago ; 
about one-third occur near Mauritius, and about the same proportion is 
known from North Australia. 
Physiology of the Crayfish, f — M. L. Cuenot has fed Crayfishes with 
food stained with different anilin colours ; these show that the “ liver ” 
has the function of absorbing soluble bodies such as peptone and sugar, 
while the short mid-gut is charged with the duty of absorbing fats. The 
dorsal pyloric valve is found not to be a means, as Huxley and others 
have supposed, for preventing flow from the intestine back to the stomach ; 
an injection per anum is sufficient to show that the passage is free. Its 
function is to convey non-digested solid matters directly to the terminal 
intestine, which is lined by chitin, and to save from their rude contact 
the delicate wall of the mid-gut. So far it is comparable to the funnel 
found by Schneider in the intestine of many Insects. In Astacus and 
Maia the author has found a circular mass of spherical glands at the 
point where the mid- and hind-gut join ; and from these glands fine 
ducts open at this point. 
The “ liver ” of Decapod Crustacea, in addition to secreting digestive 
ferments and accumulating reserve-products such as glycogen and fat, 
plays an important part not only as a place for the absorption of the 
soluble products of digestion, but as a regulator of the amount of water 
which is contained in the blood. 
Embryology and Morphology of 0xyrhynchi4 — Dr. G. Cano con- 
tributes a welcome study of these forms, describing the segmentation, 
the origin of the organs, and the larval stages. We cannot do more 
than state a few of his general results. The Inachidse and Maiadae are 
hatched in a stage between zoea and metazoea — the deutozoea stage — in 
which the internal branch of the second antenna is well developed, and 
there are eight pairs of thoracic appendages. 
The zoea is a polymorphic coenogenetic form from which few phylo- 
genetic conclusions can be deduced. Purely larval modifications are 
such as the following ; — The diverse forms of zoea in Macrura and 
Brachyura, the variable reduction of the thorax associated with the loss 
of one or more appendages, the conformation of the second pair of 
* Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., v. (1893) pp. 325-458 (5 pis.), 
t Comptes Rendus, cxvi. (1893) pp. 1257-60. 
X MT. Zool. Stat. Neapel, x. (1893) pp. 527-83 (3 pis.). 
2 x 
1893. 
