194 BRITISH ENTOMOSTRACA. 



place (t. XXIV, f. 10) ; the body was divided into two seg- 

 ments, abdomen into three, the terminating one cleft at 

 extremity, each cleft sending off a long seta ; antennae of 

 about six articulations ; the antennules had become dis- 

 tinctly visible, and the feet had assumed the appearance 

 they afterwards bear. At each moulting the number of 

 segments into which the body and abdomen are divided 

 increase in number. The number of articulations and 

 the length of antennse increase, &c. ; but it is not until 

 after the third moulting that the animal is perfect 

 (t. XXIV, f. 3), and capable of producing its species. 



A question has been started, whether the Cyclopidse 

 should be considered oviparous or viviparous ; and it ap- 

 pears to be one of some difficulty, as they would seem, 

 from what I have stated, to be both. Geoffrey asserts 

 that all the ]\Ionoculi are oviparous.* De Geer also says 

 they are oviparous. " However," he immediately adds, 

 " as the Monoculi never quit their eggs before the young 

 ones are hatched, we may perhaps regard them as vivi- 

 parous."! Jurinc says it is difficult to decide. Vivi- 

 parous young, he remarks, increase in size every day, and 

 have constant need of a mother's care — if she die, all die ; 

 but as the young of the Cyclopida) do not increase in size 

 after passing from the internal ovary, and as, from nu- 

 merous experiments which he details, they were found, 

 after having passed into the external ovary, to be inde- 

 pendent of the life of the mother, even if she were killed 

 by spirits of wine, they must, he concludes, be considered 

 oviparous. J 



The process of moulting, under which the little creature 

 frequently succumbs, is both interesting and curious. 

 The new shell or covering having grown under the old 

 one, when the process of changing it commences, the in- 

 sect fastens itself to the bottom or side of the vessel in 

 which it is, or to any solid object near it, so as to give 



* Hist, abreg. des lusectes, 654. 



f Mem. pour serv. k I'llist. dcs Ins., vii, 435. 



X Hist. Nat. dcs Mouoc, 17. 



