Abstract
THE Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science for August 1892 contains:—On the anatomy of Pentastomum teretiusculum (Baird), by Prof. W. Baldwin Spencer, M. A. (Plates i. to ix.). Whilst collecting on Kings Island, which lies to the west of Bass Straits, half-way between the mainland of Victoria and Tasmania, numerous specimens of the copper-head snake (Hoplocephalus superbus) were found, in the lungs of which a large species of Pentastomum were parasitic; afterwards the same parasite was discovered in the lungs of the black snake (Pseudechys porphyriacus) in Victoria; on examination there seemed little doubt but that the species was the one described by Baird long ago (1862) from specimens obtained in the mouth of a dead copper-head snake in the Zoological Gardens, London, under the name of Pent. tereliusculum. In this paper we have very complete account of the anatomy of this form, there being descriptions and figures of its external anatomy, schematic representations of the muscular, alimentary, secretory, nervous, and reproductive systems, and an account of the sense organs. The paper is illustrated by ten double plates.—On the minute structure of the gills of palamonetes varians, by Edgar J. Allen, B.Sc. (Plate x.). It would seem that so far as the gills of this crustacean are concerned, the statement made by Haeckel and Ray Lankester, that the circulatory system of the Decapods is everywhere closed, does not hold true. It would also seem fairly certain that the masses of cells surrounding the venous channels, in which Kowalevsky found litmus deposited a few hours after its injection, exercise an excretory function. In addition to these excretory cells, a large number of glandular bodies occur in the axis of the gill, and these are of two kinds— clear and reticulate glands.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Scientific serials. Nature 47, 260–261 (1893). https://doi.org/10.1038/047260a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/047260a0