LEITOPHia 



LERNEAD.i:. 



Mcuou, ui.l Urmxil ; and the other three AcUtie. two from the But 

 Iwliei and ooe from the uland of Java. 



D. ratio. Yellowish-gray, shining with pule gold-colour, dotted 

 with whiuah and bUek; rostrum lubobtUM. It it a native of 



). Rostrum obtuse; upper jaw projecting, but very 

 alighUy twyood UM lower. 



Mr. BU records three species, three from the Eut Indies, and one 

 i America (Carolina). To UMM Dr. dray subsequently added two 

 L. (twofWstfiu and /.. ipiiatmt (Catubtr tpiUltu, Lacepede), 

 J by the expedition under Captain Phillip Parker King, K.N. 

 ( Surrey of AortrahV) 



L. fmptnKviu (CotMtcr pttrpunumu, Shaw). Violet, changing to 

 creen, gilded ; lateral and dorsal line of a paler hue ; head obtuse. 

 It is found in the Ea*t Indies. (' ZooL Journal,' vol. ii.) 



l.KPTOl'HI.s. 



. r"l-.. i u.v 

 LKITCJSOMA. 



LfftopHi fta-ptu-ittni. 



[LM-rornixi.1 



by 



[CCCVUDA] 



a genus of liird. established 

 to the bind* C*cMd*. Example: m 



m.l ... KdolUn Cuckoo of Shiw, noed 

 Franklin, RRa. Ac., in hi. Catalogue of 

 in the Ganges between Calcutta and Benares, and 



occurring in 







f 8, a gram of OIMM baring solita 

 y < "" * "' 



rn 01 



rudiment Olunw. 



covering th. flower. 



or 2 opposite to the rachis, 

 Palo, scarioge. Stigma. feaSSiV 



L. JUiformit 



form of Granite in which mica is 

 f 



aWnt It 



LKPf.1 [LElWBfDA. 



fDA.1 



u " 



and 



Birds' 

 in the 

 on thu 



| the scales smooth and equal Feet four; the anterior little, very 

 short, and didactylous ; the posterior longer, and tridactyloua. Vent 

 simple, semicircular ; no pncanal or femoral pores. 



L. lineata is bronze-grecu, paler beneath, with two dorsal and two 

 lateral black lines. It is a native of Australia. 



Mr. Bell observes that this new genus agrees with Gymnojihlhalmtu, 

 Merr., and Ablephariu, Fitzing., in the absence of eyelids, but ditlors 

 from both in the number of its toes. In addition to this difference in 

 the structure of the feet, it is, he adds, remarkably distinguished by 

 tue want of external ears, and by its elongated and anguiform body ; 

 characters in which it agrees with Saijihot, Oray. The last-named 

 genus, he remarks, however, possesses eyelids, and differs also in the 

 number of its toes from Ltritta. (' ZooL Proc.,' 1833.) 



LERNEA. [LERKEADA.I 



LERNEAD.fc, the second order of the legion Pacilopoda amongst 

 the EutomostracouB Criutacra. [ExToxosTltACA.] 



This order is characterised by Dr. Baird in his ' History of British 

 Entomoatraca ' as follows : Mouth suctorial ; thorax not articulated ; 

 feet and other organs belonging to thoracic segment nearly rudi- 

 mentary ; no eyes ; body very outrd in appearance. 



The existence of the Lernete seems to have been known to the 

 ancients. Aristotle informs us, in his ' Uistoria Animalium,' that the 

 tunny and sword-fish are tormented by a sort of worm which fastens 

 itself under the fin, and causes such irritation to the animal that it 

 often leaps out of the water and falls on board of ships. Pliny repeats 

 the assertion almost in the words of Aristotle. Oppianus, in his poem 

 ' Alieuticon,' describes the sufferings of the poor tunny and sword-fish 

 in moving language, and asserts that the fish are frequently killed by 

 their pigmy assailants. Athenteus repeats what his predecessors had 

 written before him ; and Salvianus, in his ' Aquatilium Animalium 

 Uistoria,' 1554, quotes at length the passages bearing upon the subject 

 from Aristotle, Pliny, Oppiauus, and Athenteus. Hondeletius, in his 

 ' Libri de Piscibus Marinis,' 1554, repeats for the sixth time Aristotle's 

 and Pliny's accounts of this parasite of the tunny and sword-fish ; and 

 to prove his personal knowledge of the little animal in question gives 

 a figure of a tunny, with the parasite attached, near the pectoral fin. 

 He says it adheres so tenaciously, that it cannot be shaken off by any 

 agitation of the body of its host. 



Conrad Gesner, in his 'Historia Animalium De Aquatilibus,' 

 1558, enters largely into the history of this parasite. 



Boccone, a Sicilian gentleman, in his ' Recherches et Observations 

 Naturellee,' published at Amsterdam in 1674, informs us, that at 

 Messina his attention was called by M. Scilla, a famous painter and 

 antiquary of that town, to the fact that the Xipkiat, or Sword-Fish, 

 was well known to the fishermen on the coast to be tormented by a 

 parasite which they called Sanguisuca. The only information he 

 received was that the motion of the creature was like that of a gimlet 

 in plunging itself into the flesh of the fish. He succeeded however 

 in obtaining a specimen, which he describes and figures. They bury, 

 he says, their whole head or trunk in the flesh of the sword-fish. They 

 are not generally confined to one part of the body, but always on 

 such places aa that the fin of the animal cannot reach them. Boccone 

 refers this species to the Oittrot, or Atilut marimu of Qesner, &c. 



In 1746 Linnu-tis, in his ' Fauna Suecica,' first edition, described a 

 parasitic^ animal found upon the Cyprinui Carattiut, "whose blood 

 it sucks." He established from this species the genus Lcrnca. In his 

 ' Itor Wast Qotha,' 1747, he notices another species found on the gills 

 of a species of Gadai ; and in bis second edition of the ' Fauna Suecica,' 

 1761, he adds a third, as inhabiting the gills of the salmon, which had 

 been figured and described by Gisler, in the 'Act Holmens.' (Kongl. 

 Vetensk. Handling.) for 1751, under the name of PediciUtu Satmonit. 

 In the 'Syat Nat,' 12th edition, 1766, he adds a fourth species to 

 the list, and up to that time these four constituted all that Linntcus 

 admitted into the genus Lernea a genus which, since his time, not- 

 withstanding the difficulties attending its investigation, has increased 

 a hundredfold, and now constitutes a large family. So bizarre in 

 appearance are these Ltrnca, that Linntcus had no idea that they 

 belonged to the Crtutacea ; on the contrary, he places them amonirst 

 the worms. 



"Of all the curious creatures which the naturalist meeta witli in 

 nui researches," says Dr. Johnston, " there are none more paradoxical 

 than the Lenta; none which are more at variance with our notions 

 f animal conformation, and which exhibit less of that decent pro- 

 jwrtion between a body and its members which constitutes what wo 

 choose to call symmetry or beauty." It is no wonder then that, with 

 knowled S he hnl * of their habits and history, Linmcus 





" 



, 



should have considered their proper place in the system of nature to 

 be amongst his MoUmca; animals belonging to his class Verma, and 

 characterised by him, from the softness of their body and the want 

 of a shell 



In 181 7 Cuvier adopted the view taken by Bosc, and in his ' Rtgne 

 Animal placed the Ixrnecc amongst the intestinal worms. 



There is nothing very instructive in this detail of the difficulties felt 

 by systematic writers in knowing or determining where these curious 

 L first night bizarre-looking animals should be placed. Little 

 was known of their habita, manners, or mode of propagation, and 

 though their near relations with the Caligi had been observed by 

 several authors, they had not sought to resolve the question by 



