Systematic Zoology of the Invertebrata

Abstract

AMONG recent systematic papers on the invertebrates, a noteworthy account of the parasitic worms collected on the British Antarctic (Terra Nova) Expedition, written by Dr. R. T. Leiper and Dr. E. L. Atkinson, has been published by the British Museum (“Terra Nova Zoology.” vol. ii., No. 3). From the summary of results we learn that the Ross Expedition of 1841–4 brought back two species of Entozoa; the Scott (Discovery) Expedition of 1901–4 four species; the Bruce (Scotia) Expedition seventeen species; the French (Pourquoi Pas?) Expedition eighteen species; the Terra Nova twenty-eight species. These figures show how greatly zoological knowledge has been increased through our latest national Antarctic enterprise. Three of the worms now recorded from the far south had previously been known only from the Arctic regions. Two of these—a Filaria and an Echinorrhynchus—have whales as their hosts irt both localities, but the third—a monostomid trematode, Ogmogaster plicatum, Creplin—is parasitic in rorquals in the north, and in the Crab-eating and Weddell's Seals in the south; a remarkable divergence in habit.