Vfel 



on a TURK RBTTISH ENTOMOSTBACON . 



few points (to be noted hereafter) in which it differed from the descrip- 

 tion, there could be no doubt that it was I. sordidus. Mr. Bolton 

 believes that my specimen came from a small pond in Sutton Park, 

 near Birmingham, and that there were several more in the same water, 

 but when I called upon him next morning there was not one to be seen. 

 I had fortunately made a careful drawing of it on the previous evening, 

 and also taken copious notes of its anatomy and peculiarities. Although 

 I have carefully searched the pond from which it is supposed to have 

 come, I have never found any more, and the only other specimen that 

 T have seen is one that was accidentally preserved by another gentle- 

 man when mounting a slide of ] r olvox plohator from the same locality. 



It is very remarkable that my own experience of the numerical 

 scarcity of this species has been similar to that of all previous observers 

 except Kurz. Thus Fischer says he could find only one ; Loydig also 

 found only one ; Norman found three, and subsequently one more; and 

 in the present case only two were found. This scarcity of numbers is 

 perhaps more apparent than real, as the animal is evidently a mud- 

 lover, and we have all searched for it in the water instead of on the 

 surface of the mud. Kurz, the only one who found it in any quantities, 

 obtained it free from mud by the following ingenious contrivance : — 

 A small net fastened in the ordinary way to a metal ring, and fixed 

 to the end of a long string by several strands, has attached to its lower 

 edge a large stone, and to its upper edge a piece of cork. This is flung 

 into the water as far as the string allows and sinks to the bottom, 

 where it stands on its edge owing to the stone and cork attached to it. 

 As it is dragged along the stone stirs up the mud in front of it, and all 

 the lighter particles, including entomostraca and most living organisms 

 are swilled into the net. In this way Kurz succeeded in capturing 

 many females of the species and a few males, the only ones ever 

 captured. This need excite no surprise, as even in the commonest 

 Daphniadao males are always very rare. 



The following is a description of my specimen, which is a young 

 female, drawn on Plate I., Fig. 1 : — 



The shape of the valves of the carapace is oval, and they are very 

 convex, so that the thickness of the body when viewed edgeways 

 is so great as to make it appear almost spheroidal. Their surface 

 is reticulated all over with polygonal, mostly hexagonal markings, 

 which are not shown in the figure. Length from top of head 

 to bottom of carapace 1-80", breadth 1-100". Colour brick 

 red. The head is bounded by a gentle curve behind, abruptly 

 truncate in front. There are two eyes, one compound (m) near the apex 

 of the head, andonesmallcr simpleeye («)belowit. Theantennules (A-)are 

 tolerably large, and spring from the forehead just below the small eye. 

 Theantennaa (/) are very large ami fleshy and divided into two branches, 

 the upper one four-jointed, with three long Betse and a short spine on 

 the terminal joint ; the lower one three-jointed, the first two joints 

 each with one seta, the terminal joint like that of the other branch. 

 None of these seta are plumose. The base of each antenna also bears 



