PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



January 13, 1852. 

 W. Yarrell, Esq., in the Chair. 



The following papers were read : — 



1. Monograph of the Family Apodid^, a Family of Crus- 

 taceans BELONGING TO THE DIVISION EnTOMOSTRACA ; 

 WITH A DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF APUS, AND TWO 

 SPECIES OF OSTRACODA BELONGING TO THE GENUS CyPRIS. 



By W. Baird, M.D., F.L.S. etc 



(Annulosa, PI. XXII. XXIII.) 



In drawing up this communication, one of the objects I had in view 

 was to call the attention of the members of this Society to a group 

 of animals which must be very numerous, especially in warm climates, 

 but which nevertheless have been but little attended to. The ani- 

 mals to which I propose directing your attention belong to that very 

 interesting division of the great class Crustacea, called Entomos- 

 traca. The chief interest attached to these creatures, most of 

 which are very small, is derived from watching their gambols in 

 their native element, and examining by the aid of the microscope the 

 wonderful beauty of their various organs, especially their organs of 

 motion and breathing. Unfortunately few naturalists, comparatively 

 speaking, have paid much attention to them, and collectors of objects 

 of Natural History have generally, perhaps from their minuteness, 

 overlooked them almost entirely. Those however who have watched 

 these little creatures, whether sporting in the freshwater ponds and 

 lakes of the interior, or illuming the bosom of the ocean with their 

 brilliant phosphorescent light, have not failed to be struck \vith the 

 beauty and elegance of their forms, — a beauty and elegance which it 

 is difficult to describe, and the attempt to do which has caused the 

 grave naturalist Otho Fredericus Midler involimtarily to rise into the 

 language of poetry. 

 No. CCXXXVIII. — Proceedings of the Zoological Society. 



