NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 109 



taken from a female, and I think my specimen is a male; the 

 difference, therefore, may be sexual. 



I have only met with two specimens, both occurring at the 

 same time; one of these I have submitted to Mr Brady of Sunder- 

 land, whose intimate knowledge of these minute fonns is well 

 known, but have not yet had his opinion. I am unwilling, in the 

 meantime, to break up this, the only specimen I possess, for closer 

 examination, in the hope of meeting with a further supply, 

 especially as one specimen might go only a very short length in 

 fulfilling our purpose. 



When captured, and in life, I took careful outlines of the 

 animal, and characteristic parts of its structure. On comparing 

 them with Glaus' figure of Longij) edict, I had no doubt in referring 

 it to that genus; but finding the terminal setae of the first and 

 second thoracic feet in Glaus' figure plain, and. in this chiefly 

 plumose, with other slight diff"erences, I hesitate to refer it to 

 coronal a, until I have further confirmation. 



I believe this little crustacean will be found to be rare on our 

 coasts, unless it should turn out that it is diflficult to dislodge from 

 the roots of the plants among which it is found. I have searched 

 such material from the same locality for years past, with care, 

 without seeing one, till last autumn, when I found the two. 



I may mention a circumstance connected with their capture that 

 may not be without interest. The usual mode of searching for these 

 small forms got amongst sea- weed and debris at the bottom of the 

 sea, is to put the material that you expect them in into a vessel 

 with water, and allow it to stand for a short time, when the 

 small animals will be seen to crawl or swim out to the sides, 

 where they may be easily laid hold of with a small camel-hair 

 brush. The operation may be continued with more or less success 

 for a few hours, but in the course of a day many of the more 

 tender animals die, the water becomes putrid, and the whole 

 has to be thrown out. However, in this state many of the 

 animals live and survive the total extinction of their weaker 

 companions. It was after the material had been kept over two 

 days that I found the Longipedia emerging from their obscure 

 retreats, doubtless in a state of suffocating oppression, to seek a 

 purer element. If it should really turn out that they are difficult 

 to dislodge, their apparent rarity may thus be accounted for. 



Mr Robertson also made some remarks on the forms of the 



