136 [June, 



little clayej matter. Over the whole (the gravel excepted) there was 

 a thin coating of low algaic growth, as well as the usual complement 

 o£ higher Algae to be found in such places. I went to work here, and 

 the first stone lifted revealed a dozen or more undeveloped specimens 

 on its under-side. Beneath the stone adjoining, in a space that could 

 have been covered by a crown piece, there was a group of the un- 

 developed forms, with a single mature specimen in their midst, just as 

 one often finds a family of earwigs, or sees a hen surrounded by her 

 chickens. On exposure to the light they at once commenced to 

 scamper off. Two more precisely similar cases were observed, and two 

 or three mature specimens were taken separately in the gravel ; the 

 undeveloped forms also were frequent, in companies and singly, without 

 any adult near them. 



To give as good an idea as I can of the conditions under which 

 Aepophilus lives, it will perhaps be interesting to mention that I com- 

 menced to work at 2.45 p.m. ; by about 3.30 the flowing tide was 

 wetting my feet as I knelt down, and I had to beat a retreat, and in a 

 few minutes more the bottom of the channel was covered. High tide 

 occurred that night at 8.38, from which it will be seen that the insects 

 are under water for some ten hours out of the twelve necessary for 

 ebb and flow. 



On April 30th I again went to the habitat, and by removing one 

 of two large stones lying at right angles to each other, secured five 

 mature specimens in the compost that was Ijing between them ; but, 

 on May 8th, I had my greatest haul, when I caught no less than 

 twenty-five mature specimens. 



It may be further observed with regard to condition, that there 

 was no foul mud near at hand, and the stones with the insects beneath 

 were generally embedded slightly in the gravel, and invariably in such 

 a position that the water drained quickly away with the ebbing tide. 



I have experimented with living specimens both young and mature, 

 in the hope of seeing them feed, but they are constantly out of sight 

 on the under-side of the stone provided for them ; and although I 

 looked several times daily I have not been able to detect their proboscis 

 in operation. They hide in companies in little holes in the stone, 

 packed together as closely as possible, or rest on the algaic growth 

 thereon. I observed one specimen with its head stuck right into this 

 matter, and it seems probable that it is on one or other of these low 

 AlgcB that they feed. At all events, there is nothing else that I can 

 see on which my living specimens can subsist, and they are as lively 

 and fresh after six days' captivity as when first brought home. Grow- 



