LERNEA D;E. 311 



blind.* Baker, in the ' Philosophical Transactions' for 

 1744, vol. xliii, describes a somewhat similar " new dis- 

 covered sea-insect," which he calls " the eye-sucker," and 

 which he found " fixed by the snout'' to the eyes of sprats. 

 The figure is very poorly executed, so much so, that it is 

 not possible exactly to make out the species ; but a Lernea 

 does infest the common sprat of this country, and has been 

 figured by Mr. J. Sowerby in the ' British Miscellany.' f 



In 1746 Linnaeus, in his ' Fauna Suecica,' first edition, 

 described a parasitic animal found upon the Cyprinus 

 Carassius, " whose blood it sucks." He established from 

 this species the genus Lernea. In his ' Iter Wast Gotha,' 

 1747, he notices another species found on the gills of a 

 species of Gadus ; and in his second edition of the ' Fauna 

 Suec.,' 1761, he adds a third, as inhabiting the gills of 

 the salmon, which had been figured and described by 

 Gisler, in the 'Act. Holmens.' (Kongl.Vetensk. Handling.) 

 for 1751, under the name of Pedicidus salmonis.\ In 

 the 'Syst. Nat.,' 12th edition, 1766, he adds a fourth 

 species to the list, and up to that time these four consti- 

 tuted all that Linnaeus admitted into the genus Lernea 

 a genus which, since his time, notwithstanding the diffi- 

 culties attending its investigation, has increased a hundred- 

 fold, and now constitutes a large family. So bizarre in 

 appearance are these Lernese, that Linnaeus had no idea 

 that they belonged to the Crustacea ; on the contrary, he 

 places them amongst the worms. 



" Of all the curious creatures which the naturalist meets 

 with in his researches," says Dr. Johnston, " there are 

 none more paradoxical than the Lerneae ; none which are 

 more at variance with our notions of animal conformation, 

 and which exhibit less of that decent proportion between 

 a body and its members which constitutes what we choose 

 to call symmetry or beauty."^ It is no wonder, then, 



* Decuria, ii, p. 126. 



( The Lerneonema monillaris, M. Edwards. 



;!; Act. Holmens., 1751, p. 181, t. 6, f. 1-5. 



London's Magazine of Natural History, viii, olio. 



