THE MOUNT DESERT REGION 



Order OSTRACODA 



229 



This order, with the Copepoda Harpacticoida, forms the 

 most important item in the fauna of mud bottoms in this 

 Region, The Ostracoda of this Region are still quite imper- 

 fectly known, even though the following list shows a high 

 proportion of additions to the New England fauna. It is 

 interesting to find that Cushman's (1906) opinion that certain 

 forms represented only by dead shells in the Woods Hole 

 region would be found living north of Cape Cod is amply 

 confirmed. 



After trying various methods of mounting, it is the writer's 

 conclusion that the appendages must be handled separately 

 from the shell. The former may be mounted in gum damar 

 or, better, in Farrant's medium sealed with soft paraffin (m. p. 

 about 40° C.) after the fashion of Myers' rotifer mounts. 

 The shells are carefully cleaned, any glycerin from the pre- 

 liminary examination and dissection washed out with alcohol, 

 and mounted in hollow slides of the type used by Cushman 

 for Foraminifera. 



As a guide to the classification and literature of this order, 

 one should be familiar with three works: G. W. Miiller's 

 (1912) monograph in Das Tierreich, Skogsberg's (1920) valu- 

 able discussion of the appendages and the taxonomy of the 

 order, and G. 0. Sars' (1922-1928) account of the Ostracoda 

 of Norway. Further, one must, of course, have at hand Cush- 

 man's (1906) paper on the species occurring at Woods Hole. 

 In view of the intimate relation between recent and fossil 

 forms and the necessity for the student of one group to 

 familiarize himself with the other, I cannot omit to mention 

 the synopsis by Ulrich and Bassler (1923). In spite of its 

 manifest sins in the treatment of the more recent families 

 (geologically), it remains the best existing account of fossil 

 ostracods. 



