Lernce\i uncindta. 



565 



Art. VII. Illustrations in British Zoology. By George John- 

 ston, M.D., Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edin- 

 burgh. 



45. Lernje n a uncina v ta. (Jig. 53.) 



Is this a creature, 



Or a monstre transformed agayne nature ? " Chaucer. 



Of all the curious creatures which the naturalist meets with 

 in his researches, there are none more paradoxical than the 

 Lernae x ae ; none which are more at variance with our notions 



of animal conformation, and which 

 exhibit less of that decent propor- 

 tion between a body and its mem- 

 bers which constitutes what we 

 choose to call symmetry or beauty. 

 Of its paradoxicalness no better 

 proof can be given, than the diffi- 

 culty which the most experienced 

 systematists have found in deter- 

 mining the proper place and rank 

 of the family among organised be- 

 ings. Linnaeus located it amongst 

 the Mollusca, because of the soft- 

 ness of the body, and its want of a 

 shell ; Cuvier placed it at the end 

 of his first order (Cavitaires) of 

 intestinal worms ; to Lamarck it 

 appeared to have some resemblance to worms, and some to 

 insects ; but, belonging to neither, he conjectured that it indi- 

 cated the probable existence of a new class, which should fill 

 up the void that yet exists between those classes. Latreille 

 has collected the various genera into a group, which forms the 

 first order of his worms, Elminthogama ; while Audouin and 

 M. Edwards maintain that they are suctorial Crustacea "be- 

 come monstrous after they have fixed themselves : " and this 

 allocation seems, on the whole, the best of any, though neither 

 Chaucer nor M. Edwards will convince me that they are mon- 

 sters " transformed agayne nature." 



I am not aware that Lema? v a uncinata has been yet ad- 

 mitted into the catalogue of British species, although it is pro- 

 bably the most common of any in our seas. It affixes itself to 

 the fins and gill-covers of the cod and haddock by the dilated 

 part marked d in the figure, and cannot be removed without 

 pains and difficulty. It is from six to eight lines long, of a 

 milk-white colour, smooth, opaque, and enveloped in a thin 

 transparent pellicle, or skin : the head or mouth (d) is reddish, 



r r 3 



Lerna; % a uncinata, of the natural size, 

 a side view ; b, a posterior view ; c, a 

 side view, magnified. 



