FLEMING'S HERMIT-SCREW. 



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ready to prey upon fishes, oysters, or indeed any animal substance that comes in their 

 way. The fishermen, who know it by the name of Pernys, are very angry with this little 

 creature, and declare that it robs them of their mussel harvest. They even assert that 

 it climbs the posts of the complicated woodwork to which the mussels cling, cuts the 

 silken threads by which these molluscs are attached, and having thus let them fall into the 

 sea, eats them at leisure. As is the case with the sand-hopper, the Corophium is greatly 

 persecuted by larger creatures, and is eaten in vast numbers by birds and many fishes. 

 All the members of this genus can be recognized by the enormous dimensions of their 

 antenna?, which are extremely thick at the base, and look much more like a very large 

 pair of legs than true antennae. 



A, B. FLEMING'S HBRM1T-6CRBW. AfrrooJOU sedeatarla. 



C, D. Dactylocera Nlcaeasls. 



E, P. CADDIS SHRIMP. Campus tubularis. 



WE now come to some very curiously shaped Crustacea, whose habits are fully as 

 remarkable as their forms. 



The two left-hand figures in the accompanying illustration represents the same species, 

 FLEMING'S HERMIT-SCREW, shown of its natural size above, and magnified below. It 

 will be seen that the creature is enclosed in a nearly oval and transparent sac, which is 

 found to be the body of one of the medusae. In this case it is a beroe which has been 

 chosen for this curious purpose. M. Risso tells us that, like the argonauts and cari- 

 nariae, these creatures may be seen in calm water voyaging along in their glassy boats, 

 and rising to the surface or sinking through the water at will. They live on animalculae, 

 and for the greater part of the year remain in the muddy depths of the ocean, ascend- 

 ing to the surface in the spring. How they enter their habitations, and their general 

 economy, are subjects at present obscure. 



There are several species of Phroniman, all inhabiting similar dwellings. Phronima 

 sentinella, for example, chooses the bodies of the aequoriae and geroniae for its home. 

 These creatures are called by the name of Hermit-screws on account of the solitary life 

 which they lead, each shut up in its cell or cocoon, as it may possibly be called. In 

 all the Hermit-screws, the head is large and vertical, with two little antennae, and the 

 body is soft, nearly transparent, and ends in a number of bristle-like appendages. All 

 the legs are long, slender, and apparently weak, except the fifth pair, both of which legs 

 possess a large and powerful claw, and are directed backward. 



A LITTLE crustacean belonging to an allied genus is not uncommon on our coasts. 

 It has habits of a somewhat similar nature, dwelling in the chambers within several 

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