240 Records of the Indian Museum. [VoL. XVIII, 
he water in these pools was apparently fresh but very foul as 
wandering Baluchis watered their sheep, goats and donkeys at 
them. Most of the fish and other animals were dying in them in 
large numbers. The fauna was, or had been, fairly rich, but there 
was no macroscopic vegetation in an active state of growth. 
Remains of reeds and a few moribund plants of a broad-leafed 
Potamogeton were observed in several of the pools and the nodular 
roots of some plant were common in the water, evidently in a 
resting state. The fauna may be dealt with group by group. 
Frsu.—Four species of fish were found in the pools, viz. Dis- 
cognathus adiscus, Schizothovax zarudnyt, Schizocypris brucei and 
Adiposia macmahom. Of the Schizothorax only young and halt- 
grown individuals were obtained, although we had the pools netted 
by Seistani fishermen. Both this species and D. adiscus were 
extremely abundant. The Schizocypris, of which we saw only 
young specimens, were much less abundant. The Adzpfosia was 
present in large numbers. This fish differs from the others in 
being a burrowing form. It was the only species in the pools that 
was ina healthy condition in December, the majority of the others 
being dead or moribund. Its stomach-contents consisted of the 
remains of Cyprinid fish and of May-fly larvae. 
Moztusca. With the exception of afew dead shells of Gyraulus 
euphraticus and G. convextusculus and one of Vivipara hilmandensis 
found among the remains of reeds inone or two of the pools, the 
only specimens of Mollusca we obtained from them were shells of 
Lamellidens marginalis rhadinacus and Corbicula fluminalis. AN 
those of the former species were empty, but a few living individuals 
of the Corbicu/a were dug from the mud, in which they were buried 
four to six inches deep. 
InsEcTA. The insect-fauna of the pools was scanty so far as 
most groups were concerned, but the larva of a large May-fly, 
probably identical with the common European Palingenia longicau- 
da, was abundant in the mud and we obtained three species of 
Rhynchota from the pools, namely Corixa hieroglyphica, C. affinis 
andC. vandana, anew species described by Mr. Distant. C. hierogly- 
phica and C. affinis are both Indian. 
‘CRUSTACEA. Numerous specimens of the crab Potamon gedro- 
slanum were dug from the mud, in which they were apparently 
hibernating with Corbicula, Palingena larvae and the fish Adiposia 
macmahont. The range of the crab extends from the Punjab Salt 
Range to Seistan. 
PotyzoA. An interesting member of this group [Plumatella 
(Afrindella) persica, sp.nov.] was found in one of the pools, coating 
the stems and nodular roots of the plant to which I have referred 
above. ‘The animal has not as yet been found elsewhere. 
Near Nasratabad we visited a number of shallow pools which 
in the flood season were evidently backwaters of streams or large 
irrigation channels. In most of them the only traces of vegetation 
were the roots and dead stems of reeds and dried masses of fila- 
mentous algae stranded on land plants growing near the margin. 
