ON CIRROPODA. 433 
coloured, and spotted with white ; the aperture is quadran- 
gular, and the operculum prismatic. The largest individuals 
are usually an inch and a quarter in height. They are found 
agglomerated in great numbers on the rocks, on shells, zoo- 
phytes, and other marine bodies in the Mediterranean, the 
European Atlantic, the coasts of the Island of Amboyna, and 
those of Jamaica. Rumphius relates that the Chinese make 
of these animals a delicate viand, prepared with salt and 
vinegar. ‘They are red, and grow white by boiling. ‘Their 
taste is similar to that of our lobster. This species attaches 
itself, in preference, to vessels, the course of which it some- 
times slackens, by accumulating there in innumerable quan- 
tities. 
The lepas spongites, has a base hollowed in the form ofa 
chalice, the structure of which is spongy. It is pierced with 
many longitudinal series of pores, and embraced by six 
triangular valves, of a purple colour, and wrinkled trans- 
versely. The least effort is sufficient to disunite them. This 
balanus remains fixed by its base in the cellules of the softest 
sponges. It is found in the common sponge of the Medi- 
terranean. 
The lepas diadema (not the subgenus DIADEMA of the 
text), is vulgarly termed the whale-louse. The shell is almost 
conical, with six valves marked externally, with three or four 
raised ribs forming a sort of cone, in relief, on each valve. 
The membranous operculum opens anteriorly, and is provided 
at its posterior part with two small testaceous teeth. A hori- 
zontal partition, pierced in the centre, divides the shell into 
two cavities, one superior, which contains the animal; the 
other, inferior, divided into eighteen principal cellules, by 
testaceous lamella, which are fixed, as well as the circum- 
ference of the valves, on the skin of the whale. Fabricius 
has seen, in the largest individuals of this species, some small 
membranous sacs come out through the orifice of the cellules. 
VOL. XII. Ff 
