A. E. Verrill on new American Phyllopod Crustacea. 331 



XXXIX. — Descriptions of some new American Phyllojpod . 

 Crustacea. By A. E. Veeeill*. 



Aetemia, Leach. 



This interesting genus is remarkable for its habit of living 

 and flourishing best in very saline and alkaline waters, such 

 as the natural salt lakes of Egypt, Utah, &c., and the artificial 

 brines formed by the evaporation of sea-water by exposure 

 to the heat of the sun, as in England, France, and the West 

 Indies. 



The species first made known, ^. salina. Leach [Cancer sa- 

 linus, Linn.), was first described by Schlosserf, who found it 

 in great profusion in the brines of Lymington, England. 

 Linnd indicates it also from the salt lakes of Siberia — ^per- 

 haps a distinct species, and probably the same as that observed 

 by Pallas J in great numbers in the Great Schimdlee. More 

 recently it has been described from the salterns of southern 

 France, at Montpellier, &c.§ The genus has been found also 

 in the lakes Goumphidieh, Amaruh, and Bedah in Egypt, 

 which are reported to be both very saline and alkaline, their 

 bottoms being " covered with a layer of crystals of carbonate 

 of soda, sulphate of soda, and common salt," while the density 

 of the water is stated as 1*255. The Egyptian species appears 

 not to have been described as yet||. In the Antilles A. Cfuil- 



* From Silliman's American Journal, being an abstract of a paper 

 read before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 Salem, Mass., Aug. 1869. 



t ' Observations periodiques sur la Physique, I'Histoire NatureUe et les 

 Beaux-Arts,' par Gautier, 1756 (with figures). An extract from this is 

 republished in ' Annales des Sciences Nat.' ser. 2. t. xiii. p. 22G (1840), in 

 an elaborate description of the anatomy, development, habits, &c. of 

 A7-temia salvia, by M. Joly, illustrated by two excellent plates of the 

 female and young. M. Joly failed to observe the male among more than 

 a thousand females, and therefore doubted whether the sexes were dis- 

 tinct, suggesting that the males very well described by Schlosser were 

 only the young, although that author described them as clasping the 

 females in the well-known manner ; but he did not observe the actual 

 copulation. 



See also an article by Thomas Rackett, in Trans. Linn. Soc. of London, 

 1812, vol. xi. p. 205, pi. 14 (figures very bad) ; Thomson, Zoological Re- 

 searches, No. 5. p. 105, 1. 1 &; 2 ; W. Baird, Nat. Hist, of the British 

 Entomostraca, p. 61, tab. 2. figs. 2-4 (figures very good, but the speci- 

 mens probably not fuU-gi'own). 



X Voyage en difterentes provinces de I'Empire de Russia, t. ii. p. 505 

 (tr. Joly). 



§ M. Payen, " Note sur des Animaux qui colorent en rouge les marais 

 salans," Ann. des Sci. Nat. 1836, ser. 2. t. vi. p. 219 (contains experiments 

 on the effects caused by altering the composition and density of the water) ; 

 also op. cit. 1838, t. x. p. 315; Joly, op. cit. 1840, t. xiii. p. 225 (see above); 

 Milne-Edwards, Crustaces, t. iii. p. 369 (1840). 



II Audouin, Ann. des Sci. Nat. 1836, s^r. 2. t. vi. p. 230. 



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