The International Zoological Congress at Moscow

Abstract

THE International Zoological Congress held its second session in Moscow during the month of August last, and with most commendable zeal the committee, to whose care the editing and publishing of the memoirs read were committed, now publish the first part of the volume of its Proceedings. This part is printed in royal octavo size, and contains 350 pages, with several illustrations. All the memoirs are in French, thirteen out of the total thirty having been translated from, it is presumed, Russian. In the first section—that of questions concerning biology and systematic and faunistic zoology from a general standpoint—there are three papers. J. de Kennel replies to the queries of Prof. L. Cosmovici: (1) On a definite arrangement of the animal kingdom in “Phyla”; (2) is there a type “Vermes”? (3) on a uniform terminology of the secretory organs of worms. Ch. Girard on some points of nomenclature. J. de Bédriaga on introduced species, and on hybrids, reptilian and amphibian. In Section 11.—the same subjects from a special standpoint—there are twelvepapers:—P. N. Boutchinsky, on the Black Sea fauna; reters to a report on invertebrates of the Bay of Sebastopol by Péréïaslavtzeva, who records 639 forms found. He describes three zones: (1) from the surface to a depth of 175 feet; (2) from 175 to 280 feet in depth, with a minimum temperature of 6–7° C.; and (3) from 280 to 700 feet, with a slightly higher temperature than in the previous zone, 8–9° C. From a depth of 700 feet the water contains a quantity, more or less large, of sulphureted hydrogen, the quantity notably increasing with the depth. T. J. Van-Beneden gives a note on the living and extinct Cetacea of the same sea. Gr. Kojevnikov gives an account of the fauna of the eastern Baltic based on many recent explorations. Dr. J. de Bédriaga treats of European and circum-mediterranean vipers. C. Grévé has a paper on the geographical distribution of the Carnivores, and T. Richard, one on the geographical distribution of the Cladocerous crustacea. H. de Jhéring makes some observations on insects' nests made of clay. Prof. A. Brandt gives a classification of animal variations according to their causation. Prof. A. Milne Edwards and E. L. Bouvier give a most interesting account of the varieties and distribution of Parapagurus pilosimanus, S. T. Smith. A table with the comparative measurements of forty-two specimens, is appended. P. abyssorum and var. scaber, are reduced to the first named species. F. Vejdovsky describes Thuricola gruberi, n. sp., and Monodontophrya longissime, gen. et sp. nov., the former from a stream near Bodenbach, the latter in the alimentary tract and body cavicy of Rhynchelmis limosella, Hofm. In a short note Dr. J. de Bédriaga calls attention to some differences between Chaicides simonyi, Sreind., and C. viridanus, which forms Boulenger and Steindacher have proposed to unite, and thinks that Molge luschani, S eind., neither belongs to Molge nor to Salamander, but to a European and American genus, not however named by him.