Abstract
THE Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science for November 1887 (volume xxviii. part 2) contains the following papers:— On the development of Peripatus novæ-zealandiæ, by Lilian Sheldon, Bathurst Student, Newnham College, Cambridge. (Plates 12 to 16.) The ripe ova are large when compared to those of P. capensis or P. edwardsii, measuring about 1.5 mm. in their long axis; this size seems due to the enormous amount of food-yolk with which the eggs are charged; the segmentation is on the centrolecithal type; the protoplasm is in the form of a reticulum; there are no traces of cell outlines. The various stages, from a want of material, were not in all cases noted, but the authoress with great ability traces many stages of the development of the embryo, until that in which the food material is completely absorbed, so that the embryo lies just within the vitelline membrane and egg shell. We trust that she will continue her investigations as fresh specimens are obtained, until she is enabled to write the whole life-history of this very interesting form.—On some points in the anatomy of Polychæta, by J. T. Cunningham. (Plates 17 to 19.) This paper gives the results of some investigations into certain Polychæte structures; on the nephridia and gonads, with a criticism of Cosmovici's paper on the “Glandes genitales et Organes segmentaires des Annelides Polychetes ”; on the cardiac body, and on the neural canals.—On Temnocephala, an aberrant monogenetic Trematode, by William A. Haswell. (Plates 20 to 22.) Four species were found; one, Temn. novæ-zealandiæ, found on Paranephrops setosus, from rivers of New Zealand; a second, Temn. minor, on Astacopsis bicarinatus, from streams of New South Wales; a third, Temn. quadricornis, on Astacopsis franklinii from northern rivers of Tasmania; and a fourth, Temn. fasciata, on Astacopsis serratus, streams of New South Wales. Diagnoses of these species are not given, but it is possible to distinguish them by the comparative details given of their structure; they seem to differ from the type species of the genus, T. chilensis, Gay; and Wood-Mason is probably wrong in thinking that this latter species is to be found in New Zealand. When undisturbed, the Temnocephala adhere to the surface of the crayfish by means of a sucker.—Notes on Echinoderm morphology, No. xi.: on the development of the apical plates in Amphiura squamata, by Dr. P. Herbert Carpenter, F.R. S.
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Scientific Serials . Nature 37, 190 (1887). https://doi.org/10.1038/037190a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/037190a0