40 N. Annandale: Tlic Fauna of Brackis]i Ponds. [\'oi.. I, 



notwithstanding a very diligent search, I have been unaljle to 

 find it in them now, although it still occurs in the estuary at the 

 same place. The only common form in the ponds at present is 

 a Ctenostome which I take to be specifically identical with the Euro- 

 pean Victor clla pavida. The Indian form, however, grows more 

 luxurianth' than the European, and often covers large areas on 

 grass-roots and the like ; the zooecia often arise ver}- close together on 

 the stolon and comparatively seldom produce buds. All the indi- 

 viduals I have seen expanded have had eight tentacles. Vidorella 

 is essentialh' a brackish- water form, and even Mcmbranipora 

 occurs elsewhere in marshes the water of which contains consider- 

 ably less salt than that of the sea. Miss L- Thornely has lately 

 identified a species found incrusting a brick in one of the ponds 

 as Bowerhankia caudata (Hincks) ; this species also belongs to a 

 genus common in estuaries. 



Crustacea. — Of the higher Crustacea all that I can say at present 

 is that the crabs, which are common among the Sponges in the 

 ponds, belong to the genus Varuna, which is generally found in the 

 neighbourhood of estuaries, whence it is liable to be carried out to 

 sea (Alcock, A Naturalist in Indian Seas, p. 75). Dr. J. de Man 

 has kindly promised to examine specimens of the Decapods, while 

 the Rev. T. R. R. vStebbing has alread}^ reported a new genus of 

 Gammarids (which will be described in a future number of these 

 " Records") among the Amphipods. 



Gurney (12) has identified the Daphniid Ceriodaphnia rigaudi 

 and Copepod Cyclops leuckartii, both freshwater species, among the 

 Entomostraca. To these I can add two species of the marine 

 order Cirripedia. A single specimen of Balanus was found deeply 

 buried in the tissues of a Spongilla and attached to the grass-root 

 to which the Sponge had also affixed itself, in December, 1906. The 

 specimen was small and distorted, probably owing to the nature of 

 its support, but it could be readily identified with Balanus amphi- 

 trite, a species common at the mouth of the Ganges and having an 

 extraordinarily wide bathymetric range in the Indian seas, for Gruvel 

 (13) has recently recorded examples of the variety communis , with 

 which the Port Canning specimen should perhaps be identified, 

 from a depth of over 1,000 fathoms. In another of the ponds I 

 found a brick to which several specimens of B. patellaris were 

 attached. This species is abundant in the Matla, occurring with 

 B. amphitrite and Chthamalus stellatus. 



Insects — G. C. Chatterjee (14) found the larva of the Mos- 

 quito Anopheles rossi abundant in the ponds at the beginning of 

 December and less so towards the end of the same month. Though 

 somewhat scarce, relativeh^ speaking, they were still to be found at 

 the beginning of January ; in March I could only find one indi- 

 vidual. At all periods between December and the end of March 

 I took several Dragon Fh" ^ larvae, of which Ischneura senegalensis 



I For observations on Dragon Fly larva; in brackish water in America see Osburn 

 in the American Naturalist, vol. xl, p. 395 (1906). 



