Mr. A. Scott on ^olecithrix hibernica. 365 



the described species of the genus, to ascertain if it could be 

 assigned to any of them ; but it seems to be clearly distinct, 

 and I now describe it as new under the name given. 



The occurrence of a representative of ScoJecithrix in the 

 British seas is of some interest from its bearing on sreoafra- 

 phical distribution, showing that it is by no means confined 

 to the warmer waters of the globe, and that it is evidently 

 widely distributed. This genus was first described by 

 Professor Brady in his Keport on the Copepoda collected 

 during the Voyage of the ' Challenger.' 



Recent researches among the Crustacea have brought to 

 light a considerable number of new species, besides adding 

 British stations for species that have been described by con- 

 tinental workers ; on the other hand, not a few of the species 

 described by British authors have been discovered in foreign 

 waters. 



In a paper "On Free-swimming Copepoda from the West 

 Coast of Ireland," lately published by Mr. I. C. Thompson, 

 F.L.S.*, one of the most successful students of the Copepoda 

 in recent years, he records Corycceus speciosus, Dana, for the 

 first time from British waters, and suggests that it may have 

 been carried to the British coasts by the Gulf-stream. That 

 the Gulf-stream has some influence in bringing Copepoda and 

 other Crustacea to our shores whose true habitat is in the 

 warmer waters of the globe, and in enabling them to survive 

 amid the colder waters round our shores, is not doubted. It 

 is a well-known fact that, from some cause not clearly under- 

 stood, shoals of Crustacea sometimes make their appearance 

 in the waters round our coasts ; and a few years ago the 

 north-east coast of England was visited by such numbers of 

 a species of Amphipod [Eathemisto compressa, Goes) that the 

 beach in the neighbourhood of Kedcar was covered with 

 them. Professor M'Intosh has also recorded the occurrence 

 of Boreophausia in immense numbers in iSt. Andrews Bay 

 within recent years. But, notwithstanding these facts, the 

 explanation suggested by Mr. Thompson, though it may 

 account for some of the additions that have been made to the 

 British Copepod fauna, is scarcely sufficient to explain the 

 occurrence in the British seas of several even of the so-called 

 pelagic Copepods that have been described by foreign authors. 

 Probably a more satisfactory explanation may be arrived at 

 if we consider the amount of work that has been done 

 amongst the marine fauna in connexion with the fisheries 

 investigations carried on during recent years and the attention 



* Trans. Liverpool Biol. Soc. vol. x. p. 95. 

 Ann. & Mog. N. Hist. Ser. 6. Vol. xviii. 26 



