double in Gammarus, of a single piece but deeply cleft in Niphargus, and completely entire in Crangonyx. By adopting the theory of M. de Rougemont it would therefore be necessary to assume here that the Niphargi differ more in their youth than in their adult state from the Gammarus pulex from which they originated.

"3. If we consider that Eriopis ought to be united with Niphargus, it is difficult to understand how these marine Gammarids could have originated from the Gammarus pulex of the fresh waters, and get into the North Sea and the Black Sea.

"4. We find the Niphargi distributed over a great part of Europe in waters deprived of light, both in wells and caverns and at the bottom of lakes. On the other hand, in Lake Baïkal, so well explored by M. Dybowsky, who has found there ninety-seven species of Gammarids, including Gammarus pulex, no species of Niphargus appears to exist *. Nevertheless this immense lake presents depths much greater than those of the Lake of Geneva and the Lake of Neuchâtel; and the solar rays, which are more oblique in Siberia than in Switzerland, must make their action felt to a still less depth than in our waters. It may be added that the astonishing number of species which inhabit Lake Baïkal, and the variety of their forms, would tend to make us suppose that this vast sheet of water has a fauna more ancient than that of the Swiss lakes, and that the modificatory causes have consequently had more time there to act upon the species.

"These various considerations lead me to believe that Niphargus is an ancient genus descended from a form now extinct, as is evidently the case with Proteus, Leptoderus, Anophthalmus, &c. As to the question whether the Niphargi of the lakes are colonies originating from animals of the same genus which inhabit subterranean waters, or whether the reverse is the case, it is difficult to solve, and its solution is even complex. Assuming that the genus Niphargus appeared before the glacial epoch, it is impossible to say any thing about its place of origin. But, not to carry the question so high, and considering only the existing fauna, I should be disposed to think that our Niphargi of the Swiss lakes have originated from those which inhabit subterranean waters. Having reached the lakes, they would have acclimatized themselves in the depths which present the darkness that they seek. In this more or less obscure zone they found themselves under conditions which allowed them to exist; whilst in the illuminated zone they could not have escaped their enemies, or maintained the struggle against their near allies furnished with visual * A Crangonyx is known from the subterranean waters of Kamtschatka.

organs. Considering the larger dimensions attained by the forms living in wells, it would seem that those of the lakes, although inhabiting much larger pieces of water, are in circumstances less favourable to their development, and are, in a manner, atrophied."

XXI.-Hermaphroditism among the Parasitic Isopoda. Reply to Mr. Moseley's Remarks on the Generative Organs of the Parasitic Isopoda. By J. BULLAR, B.A., Trinity College, Cambridge.

In the January number of this Journal Mr. Moseley attacks some statements which I had made in a paper on the Generative Organs of the Parasitic Isopoda (Journ. of Anat. and Phys., Oct. 1876). He discredits my discovery of hermaphroditism in this group, and bases his arguments mainly on the supposition that the organs which I have described as testes are, in reality, spermatophores or parts of them.

Before answering Mr. Moseley's objections, I may perhaps be permitted to supplement my previous account of the anatomy of the testes by some facts which, though they do not fully elucidate the development of the spermatozoa, are, I trust, amply sufficient to demonstrate the untenable nature of Mr. Moseley's suggestions.

The testes in these animals consist of three pear-shaped bodies, each invested by a special membrane, which is constricted to form a narrow neck before becoming continuous with the wall of the ovary. In the case of Anilocra mediterranea, the narrow portion is elongated to form a short duct. Each of the testes receives at its free end a special bundle of blood-vessels. The testes usually contain numerous spermatozoa, which may be seen passing down along the outer border of the ovary into the vas deferens. In some cases, however, they contain few or no spermatozoa, and are filled with a cellular blastema, from which, doubtless, the spermatozoa are developed.

The position of the testes is so invariable and their structure so uniform, that it is incredible that, had Mr. Moseley seen my preparations (which, I need hardly say, I should have been only too delighted to have shown him, and thus have saved him the trouble of writing his communication) and not merely the drawings, he could have mistaken the testes for spermatophores.

The vas deferens is a narrow duct lined by a flattened epithelium; at its lower extremity it presents an enlargement, and opens into a distinct penis situated on the ventral wall of the last thoracic segment.

The oviduct, which is always present as well as the vas deferens, is a wide tube opening externally at the side of the body, in the segment in front of that which bears the penis. There are some remarkable facts connected with the openings of the generative ducts, for which I must refer the reader to my original paper.

I have never found any spermatozoa in the oviduct, as might have been anticipated if they had been introduced from without; in the vas deferens, as I have said, they are almost always present; and it seems scarcely probable that this duct has the function (without parallel in the animal kingdom) of transporting the spermatozoa from without into the ovary.

Before passing on to Mr. Moseley's objections, it may be well to point out how closely similar in structure are the male organs of the animals I have described to those of Asellus aquaticus, a unisexual Isopod which has been so well described and figured by Prof. G. Ó. Sars (Crust. d'Eau douce).

In order to prove his point, Mr. Moseley is obliged to make the supposition that the vas deferens and penis which I have described are rudimentary. That this is not the case seems to me to be amply proved by the facts (1) that they are quite as large as those found among the unisexual forms, (2) that the vas deferens is usually filled with spermatozoa, and (3) that in a specimen in my possession the spermatozoa may be seen in the act of escaping from the orifice of the penis.

Another objection brought forward by Mr. Moseley is the difficulty he experiences in understanding why spermatophores should be formed in a self-impregnating animal. The explanation which at once suggests itself is that the formation. of spermatophores is so common amongst the Crustacea, that it is highly probable that they occurred among the unisexual ancestors of the parasitic Isopods, and that a tendency to their formation was inherited by their hermaphrodite descendants. Now, unless we can show that a spermatophore is a disadvantage to a self-impregnating animal, there is no difficulty in imagining that their formation might be continued.

The last objection brought forward by Mr. Moseley, founded on the immobility of the spermatozoa, is somewhat startling. He says "the immobility of the spermatozoa observed is a fact quite as much in favour of their having been introduced for some time and tired out, as freshly developed and functionally active." Now it is well known that motile spermatozoa are of very rare occurrence among the Crustacea, being found, according to Gegenbaur ('Anatomie Comparée,' p. 426), only in the Cirripedes. It seems that Mr. Moseley, in his anxiety to disprove my results, has had recourse to an hypothesis, viz. that

these parasitic Isopoda differ from other Crustacea in having motile spermatozoa, which will be generally admitted to be more improbable than the existence of hermaphroditism in a parasitic animal.

XXII.—Additions to the Coleopterous Fauna of Tasmania. By CHARLES O. WATERHOUSE.

THE following Coleopterous insects have just been added to the national collection. In the collection from which they were selected were specimens of Dorcadida biocularis, a species, I believe, not previously recorded from this locality.

MELOLONTHIDÆ.

Telura vitticollis, Er.

The male of this species appears never to have been recorded. It differs from the female in having the eyes very prominent, the club of the antennæ is composed of five long leaflets instead of three, and the elytra are more narrowed towards the base.

HETEROMERA.

Mordella felix, sp. n.

Atra; capite thoraceque aureo-tomentosis, hoc vitta media et utrinque puncto nigris; elytris macula basali fasciisque duabus (una ante medium angulata, secunda transversa ante apicem) aureo-tomentosis; pectore abdomineque albido maculatis. Long. 2 lin.

Head and thorax clothed with golden pubescence, the former with a distinct longitudinal impressed line on the vertex; thorax with a round black spot on each side, and a central longitudinal black stripe which is interrupted anteriorly; the posterior margin lobed in the middle. Scutellum golden. Elytra with a short, scarcely oblique spot joining the base near the scutellum, a well-marked fascia a little before the middle in the form of a W, and a transverse spot before the apex, all golden. Underside clothed with whitish pubescence; a triangular spot on each side of the basal abdominal segments and the two anal segments black. Palpi, two basal joints of the antennæ, anterior femora and tibiæ, and spurs to the posterior tibiæ pitchy.

Hab. Tasmania.

Brit. Mus.

LONGICORNIA.

PRIONIDE.

Tragosominæ.

ENNEAPHYLLUS, gen. nov.

Apical joint of labial palpi slightly elongate, subfusiform, truncate at the apex. Thorax transverse, with a small sharp upturned spine on each side. Scutellum parallel-sided at the base, narrowed at the apex. Elytra elongate, parallel, depressed, not spined at the sutural angle. Prosternum very narrow. Femora not dentate at the apex. Abdomen with the fifth segment emarginate at the apex in both sexes.

. Antennæ as long as the whole insect; third_joint scarcely longer than the first; the fourth to tenth joints gradually become flatter and slightly increase in length, the third to tenth opaque, each emitting from the apex below a very long flat branch; the eleventh joint long, arched, lamelliform.

. Antennæ two thirds the length of the insect, slender and simple; the third joint as long as the two following taken together; the apex of the third and the following joints entirely poriferous below.

This genus should be placed between Prionoplus and Tra

gosoma.

Enneaphyllus aneipennis, sp. n.

Elongatus, parallelus, piceus, nitidus; elytris ænescentibus, crebre punctatis; corpore subtus femoribusque testaceis; pectore longe piloso.

Long. 12-15 lin., lat. 3-4 lin.

Head and thorax very thickly and rugosely punctured; the latter a little broader than the head, flattened on the disk, with a single spine on each side. Elytra parallel, somewhat æneous, straight at the base, so that the shoulders, although rounded, are rectangular; the sides very finely margined, obtusely rounded at the apex, and with no sutural spine. Hab. Tasmania.

British Museum, Feb. 20, 1877.

Brit. Mus.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.

Ostriches and Ostrich-Farming. By JULIUS DE MOSENTHAL, ConsulGeneral of the South-African Republics for France, &c. &c., and JAMES EDMUND HARTING, F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c. With Illustrations. Trübner & Co., 1877.

THIS interesting work appears to have had its origin in the public demand for information consequent upon the exhibition at Vienna