73S 
SUMMARY OP CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
Two were semi-parasitic, — Diogenidium nasutum g. et sp. n., belonging 
to the Lichomolgidse, and Abacola holothurise g. et sp. n., representative 
of a new family Abacolidre. Along with the above the author also found 
a single specimen of a remarkable Crustacean, which he calls Leuckartella 
paradoxa g. et sp. n., whose external features suggest affinities with 
Copepods and with Phyllopods, though the organism is not referable to 
either of these orders. 
Copepoda as Food.* — Prof. W. A. Herdman took an opportunity of 
getting large hauls of these Crustaceans to try them as food. A haul of 
twenty minutes, with a small net, made a dishful, which was shared by 
eight persons ; with bread or biscuit it would probably have been a 
nourishing meal for one person. The species eaten was the large red 
form Calanus finmarchicus . 
Two new Lernseopoda.f — Prof. P. J. Van Beneden describes two 
new Lernseopods, one from the Azores and the other from the coasts of 
Senegal. The former was found on a Ray and the latter on one of the 
Squalidae. The first species is called Brachiella Chavesii, and on the 
single female there was fortunately a male ; the female extends over 
25 mm., and is most interesting for the characters of the abdomen, which 
is perfectly distinct from the rest of the body, flattens as it widens, 
and is triangular in form ; there are four cylindrical appendages set 
parallel to the ovisacs, and there is no caudal segment. In some points 
this species is allied to Charopinus. The second species, Brachiella 
Chevreuxii, has a long cephalothorax, a very wide and wavy abdomen, 
four cylindrical appendages and a caudal segment ; the female is in all 
not more than 12 mm. long, and its anterior part is flexible like a swan’s 
neck ; one male was found with its mouth applied to the skin of the 
female in the region of the sexual orifices ; the circular mouth is sur- 
rounded by a circle of small setae, and the abdomen is terminated by two 
conical appendages. 
Vermes. 
a. Annelida. 
Eyes of Polychaeta.J — Mr. E. A. Andrews has made a study of the 
eyes of members of various families of Polychaeta. He comes to the 
conclusion that the eye is a collection of pigment-cells with clear 
refracting portions at the cuticular and nerve-processes at the hinder 
ends. In the branchial eyes of some tubicolous forms the retinal cells 
are isolated by intervening pigment-cells, and each bears its own 
refracting medium in its cuticular end. There is thus no fusion of 
refracting media to form a common lens. Each true “ camera ” eye of 
the higher errant forms is composed of many cells crowded into a 
spheroidal mass ; the pigment portions of the cells form a deep optic or 
retinal cup, from the open pupil of which the lens mass may project 
towards the cuticle. The retinal cup is lined by a layer of clea,r rods, 
each a part of one retinal cell. Between these rods and part of the lens 
a “ vitreous body ” may be interposed, or the lens may occupy the whole 
of the central space within the layer of rods. This lens is often con- 
* Nature, xliv. (1891) p. 274. 
f Bull. Acad. Roy. de Belgique, lxi. (1891) pp. 23-35 (2 pis.). 
j Zool. Anzeig., xiv. (1891) pp. 285-6. 
