200 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
mouth of the Congo. It is one of the sub-family Acoetidae, of which only 
fifteen species are known, and of these the new form most resembles 
Polijodontes gulo , which should be placed in the new genus. Other 
genera of the family are critically revised, and an investigation has been 
made into the characters of the branchiae of the Ampliinomidae. From 
this latter it results that within the same genus there are forms with 
vascular and non-vascular “ branchiae.” From this it may be concluded 
that the so-called branchiae of Polychaeta do not always serve as respira- 
tory organs, and indeed may not do so at all ; it is in the sense that we 
call them branchiae, on account of their representing the respiratory 
organs of allied forms, that Miss Buchanan claims to be allowed to apply 
the same term to the branching processes on the parapodia of E. Cornishi. 
When these outgrowths are not respiratory or mainly so, they may have 
to do with excretion, serving to store the excretory products, and pro- 
bably, in the case of Amphinome at least, and those forms with blood- 
vessels immediately underlying the epidermis and with concretions in 
the epidermis cells, to form them from the blood ; in this category the 
“ branchiae ” of E. Cornishi are probably to be found. 
Clitellum of Earth-worm.* * * § — Mr. F. J. Cole throws doubt on the 
commonly received doctrine that the clitellum secretes the cocoon, and 
thinks that “ it must be admitted that the position of the clitellum points 
to the conclusion that its only office is to meet the exigencies of an 
otherwise difficult copulation.” An account is given of the histology of 
the clitellum of Lumbricus herculeus , and it is urged that there are no 
hypodermic cells in it. 
Exotic Earthworms.j — Dr. H. Ude has made a "revision of the 
earthworms in the collection of the Zoological Institute at Gottingen. 
In the Rhinodrilid genus Anteus he has found two new species, which 
he calls A. distinctus and A. teres, as he has also of Perichseta (P. pusilla 
and P. parva). Among the Acanthodrilidae he makes a new genus 
Geodrilus ( G . singularis sp. n. from Danville, 111.), but he refrains from 
discussing the generic distinctness of allied genera, or of his new type. 
Of Eudrilus erudiens sp. n., as of his other new species, the author is 
careful to describe the internal organization. 
Victorian Earthworms. J — Prof. W. Baldwin Spencer, in the second 
part of his preliminary notice of Victorian Earthworms, gives sufficient 
details to serve for the identification of twenty-two species, of which 
twenty are new, referred provisionally to the genus Perichseta. Most of 
them are found to have a very limited area of distribution. 
South American Tubificidse.§ — Mr. F. E. Beddard has a preliminary 
notice of the Tubificidae collected in South America by Dr. Michaelsen. 
Four of the five species belong to Hesperodrilus , a new genus charac- 
terized by the presence of capilliform setae only in the dorsal bundles, 
and of two setae only in each ventral bundle, as well as the opening of 
the spermotheca in segment xiii., and the fact that the sperm-duct opens 
independently of the spermiducal gland into the penis. The first species 
* Zool. Anzeig., xvi. (1893) pp. 440-6 and 453-7 (2 figs.), 
t Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zool., lvii. (1893) pp. 57-75 (1 pi.), 
j Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria, v. (1893) pp. 1-26 (6 pis.). 
§ Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., xiii. (1894) pp. 205-10. 
