146 



KNOWLEDGE 



[July 1, 1898. 



other missing species is Chiroceplial'u.i diaphanvs, the fairy 

 shrimp. The name of the creature is deservedly pre- 

 possessing and rightly suggestive of its real beauty. Of 

 this no picture conveys any adequate idea, because the 

 great antennae, or " hands on the head," to which the 

 generic name refers, distract attention and look clumsy in 

 a drawing ; while the pellucid limpidity of the whole 



organism, its 

 iridescent 

 colouring, and 

 the graceful 

 vivacity of its 

 motions be- 

 long to nature 

 rather than 

 art. One point 

 in the history 

 of this fairy is 

 apt to excite a 

 smile of in- 

 credulity, for 

 it is said to be 

 found in places 

 quite out of 

 harmony with 

 the birth of an 

 Oberon or a 

 Titania — " in 

 stagnant 

 water, very 

 often in the 

 ditches and 

 deep cart-ruts 

 on the edges 

 of woods and 

 plantations." 

 These wood- 

 land cart-ruts, 

 as everyone 

 knows, though 

 soft and brim- 

 ming with 

 water at times, 

 become at 

 other times 

 perfectly dry 

 and of a stony 

 hardness. It 

 may seem, 

 therefore, like 

 one of Baron 

 Munchausen's 

 miracles to 

 people these 

 transient 

 troughs with 

 crustaceans an inch in length. They cannot fall from the 

 sky. Spontaneous generation has never been accused of 

 producing shrimps. The fact is that inland Entomostraca 

 accommodate themselves, like the Rose of Jericho, to the 

 exigencies of recurrent drought and varying seasons. 

 Though they are inhabitants of water, their eggs can retain 

 vitality unimpaired for long periods after complete desicca- 

 tion of the mud in which they have been deposited. For 

 observing the development and habits of numerous species 

 belonging to the remotest lands, it is no longer necessary 

 for the student to extend his survey by toilsome travel from 

 China to Peru, lie can engage a correspondent to send 

 him by post a small piece of Australia or Egypt, a sample of 



Nebalia /-i>e« (O, Fahi-icius). 



Siberia or Ceylon. It is a pleasing experience to find a hand- 

 ful of earth, dug out of a pond at the other side of the globe, 

 teeming with foreign species responsive to the gift of a 

 cup of cold water poured upon the thirsty soil. In these 

 experiments it is expedient in Great Britain to wake up a 

 tropical brood, not amidst our frosts and fogs and chilling 

 east winds, but when warm nights and summer sun, in 

 which such broods delight, will favour their quick develop- 

 ing, until it can be said that— 



' Cupid, empire sure, 

 Fluttcr'd and laugh'd, and ofttimes through the throng 

 Made a delighted way." 



These Phyllopods go through strange metamorphoses, 

 for whereas in the full-grown condition they come to have 

 from ten to more than sixty pairs of legs, they almost 

 always begin life in what is called the iiaupliu.t stage, 

 with no true legs whatever, having to be content with two 

 pairs of antennn' and a pair of " mandibular legs " that are 

 not permanent. With this limited apparatus they manage 

 to jerk about in their watery world with tolerable activity. 

 Instead of a pair of compound eyes the young ones are 

 provided only with a central ocellus, the nauplian eye — 

 sufficient, no doubt, for their childish wants. Like crusta- 

 ceans in general, Phyllopods pass from stage to stage of 



Dorsal View. V.-utral View. 



Lepidiiru\ arrdens (I'liUas).* 



development and of growth by shedding the skin. Their 

 exuvise are easy to collect and examine when the pond 

 containing them is a bowl on a table. \\'ith the eye- 



* "FaunaNor7egiffi,"Bd. I., Tab. XI. By G. O. Sars. 1896. 



