340 BRITISH KNTOMOSTRACA. 



the Lernea? from the animals to which they are attached, 

 the head is often torn away, and that the ovarian tubes, 

 which in this genus are long and slender, may easily like- 

 wise be mutilated, and that one of these may be readily 

 torn off. If we then examine a species of Lernconema 

 sprafta, and compare it with the figure given by Baker, 

 and read his description, we shall see at once that the 

 animal described by him at p. 35 of vol. xliii, and repre- 

 sented at t. i, f. 2, 3, is clearly an individual of that 

 species without the head, and with only one ovarian tube, 

 which is represented as the body, " somewhat thicker than 

 a hog's bristle," while the real body is represented as the 

 head, the neck being the " snout." 



In 1806, Mr. Sowerby again described this parasite of 

 the sprat, in his ' British Miscellany,' and gives a figure 

 of it, of the natural size in situ, attached to the eye of the 

 little fish, and part of a magnified sketch, representing the 

 head and neck, detached. These figures of Mr. Sowerby 

 have apparently given rise to an amusing mistake on the 

 part of M. de Blainville. How he saw the original figures 

 of Sowerby it is difficult to say ; perhaps in the possession 

 of Dr. Leach. He has, however, in his paper in the 

 ' Journal de Physique,' so often quoted above, reproduced 

 the two figures, the one in situ of the natural size, the 

 other the magnified sketch of the upper portion only, and 

 described them as two distinct species ! The only infor- 

 mation, he adds, that he has concerning the two species is, 

 " that they are copied from MS. drawings of the English 

 voyage to the Congo !" The figure of the one in situ he 

 names the Lerncea cydopliora, the eye of the sprat of 

 Sowerby's figure being described as the round head of the 

 Lernea ! while the magnified figure he merely designates 

 as a species of " Lerneide articulee" the outline of the 

 unfinished short portion or commencement of the body of 

 Sowerby's sketch being taken by him as the oviferous 

 tubes ! 



One or two other species have since been described, 

 but the number known is yet but few. 



