A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



they ' have received it from Dr. Norman, who has taken it on the coast of Durham.' * But 

 it is now known that the specimen in question belonged really to ALga strSmii, Lotken, a 

 stoutly built species, nearly two inches long, with very large contiguous eyes. Schiodte and 

 Meinert, who had Norman's own authority for the correction, make Bate and Westwood 

 guilty of the further mistake, with which they had nothing to do, of stating that the specimen 

 was captured ' at the shore of the town which is called Durham.' Of the family Eurydicidae 

 (formerly, but less correctly called Cirolanidae) ' Eurydice pu/chra, Leach,' was sent to Bate and 

 Westwood from the Durham coast also by Norman.* This vicious little animal is now again 

 called by its earlier specific name Eurydice achata (Slabber). In his dredging list for 1 864, Arcturus 

 longicornis, Leach, is recorded from the same coast by Dr. Norman, and as Leacia longicornis the 

 same species is noted in the Lindisfarne catalogue. In 1892, under the now accepted name 

 Astacilla longicornis (Sowerby), Dr. Brady reports it from 2$ miles offSouter Point, 21 fathoms. 

 In the family Astacillidae, to which this genus belongs, there is a strong contrast between the 

 front pairs of legs, slender and fringed with long setae, and the three hinder pairs, compact and 

 uncinate. On the other hand, in the Idoteidae, a companion family, though the seven pairs of 

 legs are not strictly speaking all alike or all equal, they are quite sufficiently isopodous to justify 

 the ordinary designation, so far as they are concerned. Idotea emarginata, Fabricius, and /. lineata 

 (Linn.) are both recorded by Bate and Westwood on Norman's authority from the coast ol 

 Durham. 4 Both species have the pleon apically emarginate, but whereas /. lineata is parallel-sided, 

 the other form has the peraeon or trunk pretty strongly dilated. The Asellidae are an important 

 family containing our one freshwater isopod, Asellus aquaticus (Linn.), a species as curious as it 

 is common, found in ponds and ditches all over England. For its occurrence in this county 

 I have Dr. Norman's manuscript authority. *Janlra maculosa, Leach, taken by the same 

 investigator, represents the family Janiridae. 1 It carries a scale-like appendage on the third 

 joint of the second antennas, in this possessing a rare feature. The Munnidz are represented 

 by Munna krSyeri, Goodsir, found by Norman at Seaham * ; M. limico/a, Sars, from 2 1 fathoms 

 off Souter Point ; Paramunna bilobata, Sars, a bright red species, scarcely more than a 

 twenty-fifth of an inch long, from 30 fathoms off the same Point ; Pleurogoniam rubicundum, 

 Sars, also bright red, a fifteenth of an inch in length, from 21 fathoms off Souter Point and 

 30 fathoms off Marsden ; P. inerme, Sars, in size rather larger, in colour more pale, from 

 30 fathoms off Marsden and Souter Point, and from 40 fathoms 3 miles off Sunderland, all 

 four of these minute slender-limbed forms having been obtained by Dr. G. S. Brady. 7 The 

 mud-dwelling Munna limico/a is distinguished by the elongation of its legs. Sars found it 

 only at depths between 60 and 300 fathoms. Its addition to the English fauna shows it 

 capable of living a good deal nearer to the surface. Dr. Brady further obtained Eurycof>e 

 cornutay Sars, from 30 fathoms off Souter Point. This is a small representative of a remarkable 

 family, the Munnopsidae, in which the inequality and unlikeness between the front and rear 

 sets of trunk-limbs make the term Isopoda in its literal meaning singularly inapplicable. The 

 anterior legs are notable for their tenuity, whereas the three hinder pairs are in accord with 

 the generic name Eurycope, meaning ' broad oars.' They have the ultimate and penultimate 

 joints broadly expanded and fringed with long plumose setae, being thus adapted excellently 

 for swimming paddles after the fashion of the hindmost legs in the fiddler crabs. 



The Terrestrial Isopoda, or woodlice, have probably not yet been diligently sought after 

 in this county. Dr. Norman is my authority for the occurrence here of Philoscia muscoram 

 (Scopoli) ; Trichoniscus pusillus, Brandt 8 ; Oniscus asellus, Linn. ; Porcellio scaber, Latreille ; 

 Metoponorthus pruinosus (Brandt),* of which many years ago he gave me two specimens from 

 his collection at Burnmoor ; and Armadillidium vulgare (Latreille). Bate and Westwood say 

 of Oniscus fossor, Koch, 'The Rev. A. M. Norman records it from Sedgefield, Co. Durham.' 10 

 But the distinctness of the species from 0. asellus is somewhat doubtful. Porcellio scoter is 

 mentioned in the Lindisfarne catalogue. 



The last of the Malacostracan divisions enjoys the name Amphipoda, intended to imply 

 that the feet arc extended round about, forward, sideways, and backward. Latrcille probably 



1 Brit. SesstU-ejed Crustacea, ii. (17), z8o (1867). 



* Naturh'ut. TiJukrifi, er. 3, xii. 283 (1879). 



8 Brit. Sen. Crust., ii. 312. * Loc. cit. pp. 387, 389. 



1 Loc. cit., p. 340. e Loc. cit., p. 328. 



7 Nat. Hist. Trans. Northumb. ttc., rir. (i), 96. 



8 See also Norman, Ann. Nat. Hist., er. 7, iii. 73 (1899). 



9 Loc. cit., p. 74. 10 Brit. Sess. Crust., ii. 471. 



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