632 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
Society’s survey off the west coast of Ireland. Only seven species were 
obtained, one of which, Eunice philocorallia , is new, and one, Lsetmonice 
produda Grube, has only hitherto been recorded from Kerguelen. This 
last, however, is represented in the collection of the British Museum by 
a specimen from Japan. The Irish specimens are from the greatest 
depth, and, perhaps therefore, are distinguished by the absence of eyes. 
Notes are given to clear up the confusion which exists between Lsetmonice 
filicomis Kbg. and L. Kinbergi Baird. Eunice philocorallia presents a 
good many individual variations ; it occurred abundantly in parchment- 
like tubes in colonies of Lopliohelia proligera ; it appears to be most 
nearly allied to E. floridana of Ehlers. 
Micronereis variegata.*— M. E. G. Racovitza has discovered the 
male of this Annelid, which has not been detected by previous observers ; 
it is much smaller than the female, and has a smaller number of feet ; 
on the third pair of feet it has also special hooks which are not found in 
the female, and there are differences in the form of the jaws which are 
fully explained. The hooks have a copulatory function, and by them 
the male attaches himself to the female, and may remain in position 
for three days. The female becomes quite altered in appearance after 
oviposition, and the modifications which occur are explained by the con- 
tinual movement of the animal through the very thick glairy mass which 
surrounds the eggs. 
Variations in Genitalia of British Earthworms. f — Mr. M. F. 
Woodward, continuing his researches on this subject, finds that the 
presence of additional pairs of gonads is by no means of rare occurrence ; 
fifty worms belonging to five species, and taken at hazard, were found, 
in fourteen cases, to have additional gonads. In one case, a true hermaphro- 
dite gland was, for the first time, observed in Chaetopods. The author is 
of opinion that some of the facts he has noted “ accentuate the belief in 
the inherent power of the entire coelomic epithelium and their derivatives 
to produce sex-cells.” It seems probable that the varying distribution 
of the gonads in the OligochaBta is the outcome of irregular abbreviation 
of some diffuse and possibly hermaphroditic condition under perfected 
segmentation, rather than of a condition in which the gonads were 
already restricted to definitely metamerically arranged centres as in the 
Planarians. 
Anatomy of Ocnerodrilus.J — Mr. G. Eisen gives an anatomical 
account of new species of this genus, eight being here diagnosed. He 
gives reasons for disagreeing with Mr. Beddard in regarding Gordiodrilus 
as one of the Ocnerodrilidae, and proposes to form for it a new family 
Gordiodrilidae ; concise definitions are given of both families, and it is 
urged that they connect the limicolid Oligochaeta with the higher 
terrestrial forms. 
Anatomy of Kerria.§ — Mr. G. Eisen’ describes two new species of 
this genus, somewhat lately established by Mr. Beddard ; the author 
cannot accept the view of its affinity to Acanthodrilus , owing to the 
* Comptes Rendus, cxvi. (1893) pp. 1390-2. 
t Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1893, pp. 319-24 (1 pi.). 
X Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., iii. (1893) pp. 228-99 (6 pis.). 
§ Tom. cit., pp. 291-318 (1 pi.). 
