A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



carry with their variations and abnormalities proportionate difficulties of 

 description and classification. Writing in 1893 Mr. Thompson entered in 

 his list Lichomolgus agilis (Scott), remarking, 'This species was recently 

 described by Scott (Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist., Sept., 1892), who found 

 it plentiful in the shell of the cockle (Cardium edule) in specimens from 

 Morecambe, Lancashire, and from the Firth of Forth. Upon examining 

 fresh cockles of our district, I find several specimens of this active little 

 Copepod in every bivalve opened. They may be readily found by carefully 

 taking up the water contained in the shell by means of a camelhair brush and 

 washing it into water contained in a watchglass under the microscope, when 

 they will probably be seen actively darting about.' T In a later volume, how- 

 ever, Mr. Thompson reported that ' Lichomolgus (Doridicola] agilis (Leydig) 

 was found in the bottom of a tow-net, Morecambe Bay, May, 1894,' and in a 

 subsequent reference to the occurrence of this species in another locality he 

 observes, ' This is not the Lichomolgus agilis of T. and A. Scott referred to in 

 the First Report as having been found in the cockles. The latter species is 

 identical with Hermanella rostrata (Canu), a species which was described and 

 published a short time before the figures and description by T. and A. Scott 

 appeared.' 3 Canu's genus was apparently spelt Hermannella in 1891, and 

 certainly Herrmannella in 1892, not Hermanella as Thompson writes it. Of 

 Lichomolgus birsutipes (T. Scott) Thompson says, ' This well-marked species 

 was obtained from collections made in the Zostera beds near Piel ' ; of 

 Hersiliodes littoralis (T. Scott), that it ' occurred sparingly in gatherings made 

 on the mud flats near Piel ' ; and of Nicothoe astaci (Audouin and Milne- 

 Edwards), that this 'peculiar parasitic Copepod, which has all its appendages 

 fully developed, is found occasionally in considerable numbers on the branchiae 

 of the common lobster caught on our coasts ; we have noted its occurrence 

 on lobsters from Holyhead, Port Erin, and Piel ; the wing-like projections 

 of the fourth thoracic segment give it an unusual appearance.' 3 It may be 

 looked upon as the familiar spirit of the lobster ; and those who would deprive 

 the lobster of its proper generic name Astacus, commit an outrage upon the 

 old-standing designation of this interesting little entomostracan, its attached 

 companion. Mr. Andrew Scott records Modiolicola insignis, Aurivillius, living 

 as a messmate within the mouth of the ' horse mussel,' Mytilus modulus. He 

 relates that ' a number of specimens were found in the examples of this 

 Mollusc which were brought up in the trawl-net of the steamer while 

 working in the vicinity of the north end of " the Hole," on March 23rd, 1895,' 

 and adds that ' this appears to be a widely distributed species of Copepod, its 

 range being probably co-extensive with that of the Mollusc.' As he assigns 

 the species to the family Sapphirinidae, Thorell, it may be convenient to 

 notice that Canu places it along with Lichomolgus and Herrmannella in the 

 Lichomolgidas, allotting Hersiliodes and Nicothoe to the Hersiliidas * (now 

 preferably known as Clausidiidas). Giesbrecht thinks that the perplexing 

 Nicotboe might find rest in a sub-family of its own among the Asterocherida?. 6 

 In the family Ascomyzontidas, A. Scott in 1896 described the new species 

 Ascomyzon thompsoni, first obtained off the Isle of Man, but of which he says : 



1 Loc. cit. p. 207. Op. cit. ix. pp. 102, 1 60. 



8 Loc. cit. p. 143. * Les Cop'epodes du Boulonnais, pp. 238, 248 (1892). 



6 Fauna und flora des Golfts von Neapel, Mon. 25, p. 57 (1899). 



'74 



