1897] NOTES AND COMMENTS 79 
THE APPARENT DISAPPEARANCE OF THE BRITISH PHYLLOPODS 
Ivy the course of the paper alluded to above Prof. Hickson makes 
the very positive statement that the phyllopod Apus does not occur 
at all in the British Isles. This may be true, in fact we are almost 
forced to believe that it is true; but it is also certain that this 
animal used to live in this country, for Dr Baird records it as 
having been taken by three different observers, although he does 
not appear to have found it himself. Since the publication of the 
“Natural History of the British Entomostraca” in 1850, Apus 
cancriformis has never again been recorded, so far as we are aware, 
and it does seem almost certain that it has totally disappeared from 
our fauna. The same fate also seems to have overtaken the brine- 
shrimp, Artemia salina. In Baird’s time this form was to be found 
in the ‘salt-pans’ at Lymington, and probably other places, but at 
the present day one may search the old ‘ salterns’ in vain for any 
trace of the creature. With regard to the beautiful Chirocephalus 
“diaphanus, which Baird mentions from a large number of localities, 
the facts scarcely warrant our regarding it as totally extinct. 
It has certainly been seen several times since 1850. Prof. G. S. 
Brady mentions it from Yorkshire, and more recently it has been 
taken near Birmingham; nevertheless for all practical purposes 
it now appears to have disappeared. We should, however, be 
exceedingly glad to hear if any. of our readers have taken this form, 
say, within the last ten years. 
Prof. Hickson attributes this dying out of Phyllopoda—he refers 
to Apus more particularly—to the very limited means of dispersal 
which these creatures have at command. They are comparatively 
large forms, and cannot therefore be transported, attached to birds’ 
legs, &¢., so readily as the smaller and commoner Entomostraca. 
In addition to this they do not produce specially protected eggs 
like many of the Daphnias, &c. It seems probable, therefore, that, 
not being provided with the means of transport found in the cos- 
mopolitan fresh-water forms, the phyllopods have not been able 
to extend their geographical distribution, while owing to the drying 
up of old lakes, and other changes, the localities in which they occur 
are becoming fewer and fewer. 
THE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SCIENCE 
OF course we are glad to find that Mr Arctowski’s article on the 
Genealogy of the Sciences, which appeared in Natural Science for 
June 1897, should so have pleased the editors of the Bulletin de 
UInstitut International de Bibliographie that they should have pub- 
lished a French version of it in their number just received by us. 
