NOTES OX COPEPODA FROM FIRTH OF FORTH 89 



NOTES ON COPEPODA FROM THE FIRTH OF 

 FORTH: LONGIPEDIA CORONATA, CLAUS ; 

 AND A PRELIMINARY DESCRIPTION OF AN 

 APPARENTLY NEW GENUS AND SPECIES. 



By Thomas Scott, F.L.S., 



Naturalist to the Fishery Board for Scotland, 



and Andrew Scott. 



Plate II. 1 



Longipedia coronata, Claus, is one of the most beautiful as 

 well as one of the most common of the Copepoda in the 

 British Seas, and has long been familiar to us. 



It belongs to the Harpacticidce, a family not only very 

 extensive, but which also includes many interesting and 

 curious species. As regards distribution, Longipedia coronata 

 is to be obtained in a great variety of places, and at very 

 various depths ; it usually lives on or near the bottom, and is 

 thus much more frequently obtained in materials collected by 

 means of the dredge than in tow-net gatherings. Its favourite 

 habitat seems to be among the zoophytes and weeds of the 

 littoral and coralline zones. 



Though many hundreds of specimens have passed through 

 our hands, especially during the last few years, so that its 

 appearance has become familiar to us, we have nevertheless 

 had our suspicions occasionally aroused as to whether there 

 were not really two species mixed up together under the 

 name Longipedia coronata as understood by British Carcin- 

 ologists. On several occasions during the past few years a 

 partial investigation has been made by us for the purpose of 

 ascertaining whether there were really two species or not ; 

 but from want of time, or from some other cause, no satisfactory 

 solution was arrived at On referring to some of the litera- 

 ture dealing with the Copepoda, it was ascertained that a 

 certain amount of dissatisfaction had been expressed by 

 various authors with the diagnosis of Longipedia coronata as 

 given in "Die frcilcbcndcn Copepoden " and in the "British 



1 This plate will ho issued with the July Dumber. 



