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SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
arise which live without any skeleton, and not only live but grow and 
reproduce by budding. He describes several teratological examples 
and points out that monstrosities are so frequent that special care 
ought to be taken in establishing new genera or species. 
Kophobelemnon at Banyuls.* * * § — Prof. H. de Lacaze-Duthiers calls 
attention to the presence at Banyuls of this rare Alcyonarian ; as only 
one example was found, and that was still living at the time of the com- 
munication, no details are offered as to its structure. But it is pointed 
out that the fauna of Roussillon is very rich in rare forms, and offers 
much to the student. 
New Alcyonarian.f — Prof. T. Studer calls attention to a new genus 
of Alcyonaria found in the Atlantic by the ‘ Hirondelle,’ which he 
proposes to call Chelidonisis ( C . aurantiaca). With some resemblances 
to the Isidinse it has also some characters of the Mopseinse, and tends 
to draw the hitherto isolated genus Isis nearer to that subfamily. 
A Freshwater Medusa.^ — Hr. J. v. Kennel gives a description of a 
freshwater Medusa from a lagoon on the east coast of Trinidad which 
he calls Halmomises lacustris ; it is one of the Thaumantiidse. It has 
no marginal bulbs, cirri, or marginal vesicles; the umbrella is hemi- 
spherical, and has, it seems, sixteen to eighteen tentacles, on the outer 
side of each of which there is an ocellus. The velum is thin, but 
broad ; the manubrium is well developed ; the cruciform mouth has 
no lobes, there are four radial canals, and the gonads are frill-like. 
The bell has a diameter of 2—2^ mm. The colour is hyaline and 
faintly yellowish, while the gonads are yellowish-brown. The author 
was unable to find any hydroid which could be thought to be related to 
this Medusa. 
Sensory Papillae of Haliclystus auricula var.§ — Herr G. Schlater 
finds that the nervous system of this Lucernarian is relatively simple, 
being localized in the tentacular knobs and especially in the marginal 
papillae, and consisting of a system of distinct ganglion-cells connected 
with the sensory cells, with the cnidoblasts, and with one another. 
The marginal papillae — which have received many names — are analogous 
with the sensory papillae of other Acraspeda, but represent a low grade 
of differentiation. They have a musculature which is very slightly 
different from that of the tentacles. 
Heliotropism of Hydra.|| — Mr. E. B. Wilson concludes that Hydra 
has an innate (automatic ?) tendency to wander, and that light and 
oxygen operate not so much by calling forth new movements, as by the 
modification of indefinite movements that tend to recur irrespectively of 
external stimuli. The case shows an interesting analogy to the move- 
ments of plants. 
* Comptes Rendus, cxii. (1891) pp. 1294-7. 
t Mittheil. Naturf. Cles. Bern, 1890 (1891) p. xvii. 
; SB. Nat. Gesell. Univ. Dorpat, ix. (1891) pp. 282-8. See Ann. and Mag. Nat. 
Hist., viii. (1891) pp. 259-63. 
§ Zeitschr. f. Wiss. Zool., lii. (1891) pp. 580-92 (1 pi.). 
II Amer. Natural., xxv. (1891) pp. 413-33. 
