38 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
N ematoh.elminth.es . 
Australian Nematodes.* — Dr. 0 . von Linstow describes Filaria 
dentifera sp. n., from the body-cavity of Fhalangista vulpecula ; Fchino- 
nema cinctum g. et sp. n., from the gut of Ceratodus ; and Amblyonema 
terdentatum g. et sp. n., from Pasypus hallucatus. The two last-named 
forms are included among the Secernentes. 
Mermis.f— Dr. 0 . von Linstow gives a useful account of the structure 
of Mermis, and of the collection in the Berlin Museum, which includes 
a number of new species. For M. crassa and M. aquatilis he proposes 
a new genus Paramermis, distinguished by the presence of only one 
spiculum. 
Platyhelminth.es. 
New Swiss Turbellarians4 — Herr W. Yolz describes Mesocastrada 
Fuhrmanni g. et sp. n., belonging to the Mesostominae, intermediate 
between Mcsostoma and Castrada, and having one genital aperture, one 
ovary, two yolk-glands, a bursa copulatrix , testes of median length, an 
excretory organ opening into the pharyngeal pouch, and a copulatory 
organ which is peculiar, inasmuch as only the lower portion serves as 
an efferent duct for the semen. Among the other new forms described 
are Caslrada neocomensis sp. n., and Diplopenis g. n., with two copulatory 
organs, which either do not serve as efferent ducts, or do so only in their 
lower portions. 
Mesostoma aselli.§ — Prof. J. Kennel found this new Turbellarian 
repeatedly in the brood-pouch of Asellus aquations . but was unable to 
determine whether it was a parasite, or whether it devoured the brood, 
or whether it was simply a commensal living on the infusorians and other 
small organisms in the pouch. 
Cyathocephaius catinatus.|| — Dr. E. Riggenbach records this new 
species from Solea vulgaris. Its particular interest is that the scolex 
has ouly one sucker, a peculiarity which has hitherto been known 
only in Cyathocephaius truncatus Kessler. 
Incertae Sedis. 
Position of Phoronis.^" — M. Louis Roule has studied the develop- 
ment of Phoronis Sabatieri , and his results do not agree well with 
Masterman’s. There is in the Actinotrocha-stage an anterior diverti- 
culum of the gut, whose cells show vacuolar degeneration, but it is 
unpaired and ventral. The nervous system consists of a cephalic plate 
and a median ventral plate, both destroyed in the metamorphosis ; but 
Roule has seen nothing of the structural complexity described by 
Masterman, nothing, for instance, of a neuroporo to the dorsal ganglion. 
The Actinotrocha is a modified Trochophore, and the adults are linked 
most closely to the Bryozoa, only very indirectly to the Vertcbrata, 
which the author regards as derivable from reversed Annelids. 
* Jena Denkschr., viii. (1898) pp. 469-74 (1 pi.), 
f Arch. f. Mikr. Anat., liii. (1898) pp. 149-68 (1 pi.), 
i Zool. Anzeig., xxi. (1898) pp. 605-12 (6 figs.). 
’ § Tom. cit., pp. 039-41. || Tom. cit., p. 639. 
1 Comptes Rendus, cxxvii. (1898) pp. 633-6. 
