210 August, 



A CONTRIBUTION TO THE KNOWLEDGE 

 OF IRISH FRESH-WATER ENTOMOSTRACA. 



Cladocjsra. 



by w. f. de v. kane, m.a., f.e-s. 



It is now several years since Dr. Creighton, of Ball3\sliannon, 

 published a paper on this subject, which embraced all the 

 species of Cladocera known in Ireland up to that date, some 

 thirty in number. Soon after its publication I turned my 

 attention to the subject, and received from him most valuable 

 assistance ; and subsequentlj^ from my friends Canon Norman, 

 Dr. Brady, Messrs. Scott and Scourfield, in the identification of 

 difficult forms and rare species. Though my work has been 

 fitful, and interrupted for the past two years, yet it will be 

 seen that valuable progress has been made ; and I have been 

 able to confirm, and in some points amend, the list as it 

 originally stood, consisting of Dr. Creighton's own researches^ 

 supplemented by those of others. Such records are embodied 

 in the present list, and indicated by numerals referring to the 

 list given by Dr. Creighton {Irish Naturalist^ vol. v., p. 92), as 

 follows : — 



iv. Andrews, A., Irish Naturalist, vol. ii., p. 24. 



V. Creighton, R. H., I?ish Naturalist^ vol. ii., p. 24. 



vi. Hodgson, T. V., hish Naturalist, vol. iv., p. 190. 



vii. Norman and Brady : Monograph of British Ento- 

 mostraca, 1867. 



ix. Creighton, R. H., Irish Nattiralist, vol. v., p. 89. 



For all the rest I am mj^self answerable. Although the result 

 of so small an amount of work has been highly encouraging, 

 a considerable number of the species taken being scarce, or 

 local enough elsewhere to offer some most interesting 

 suggestions relating to distributional and other scientific 

 problems, j^et the area of countrj' examined so far is insignifi- 

 cant, and the examination of many of the waters tried has 

 generally been disconnected and incomplete ; so that the 

 present contribution affords no sufficient basis for 

 generalization, or for comparison for different districts, 

 or between the larger lakes of Ireland respectively. For, 

 if I except E- Neagh, E- Erne, and the plankton of E. 



