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A NEW COPEPOD FOUND IN WATER FROM HOLLOWS 



ON TREE TRUNKS. 



By D. J. Scourfield, F.Z.S., F.R.M.S. 

 {Read November 24th, 1914.) 



Plates 24 and 25. 



The search for plants and animals in unusual and unlikely 

 places is always interesting, and may be sometimes richly re- 

 warded. As a case in point, and the one which led directly to the 

 discovery of the new species of Copepod that I wish to describe 

 in this paper, we may consider what has been done in the 

 elucidation of the fauna living in the little natural cups formed 

 by the bases of the leaves of plants belonging to the Order 

 Bromeliaceae, i.e. the order to which the pine-apple belongs. 



It was in 1879 that the celebrated naturalist Fritz Miiller, 

 who was at that time associated with the National Museum in 

 Rio de Janeiro, called attention to the fact that the water con- 

 tained in the little cups just referred to was tenanted by various 

 forms of animal life. In particular he described a new Ostracod, 

 representing a new genus, Elpidium bromeliarum, which occurred 

 almost constantly in association with the Bromeliaceous plants 

 in the forests of Brazil, and strangely enough was to be found 

 in no other situation (5, 6, and 7). 



Since that date a number of other investigators have from 

 time to time examined these little collections of water retained 

 by the leaves of Bromeliaceous plants, and I may here mention 

 that soon after I became acquainted with the work of Fritz 

 Miiller I commenced to look for Entomostraca in these situa- 

 tions at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Regent's Park, and at Kew. 

 My curiosity was gratified by finding the remarkable blind 

 Copepod, Belisarius viguieri, which had not previously been 

 found in this country.* In recent years still more attention 



* Kecorded and figured in Joum. Q. M. C, vol. viii., November 1903, 

 p. 539, and vol. ix., April 1904, PI. 2 (15). For further notes on this species 

 see also The Wild Fauna and Flora of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 

 p. 20 (16). 



