Vol. VIII, No. 2.] The Freshwater Fauna of India. oe 
[N.8.] 
(pl. If, fig. 1). Quite recently I was so fortunate as to discover 
five years ago from Montenegro. The worms of this genus, as 
also the Indian species, are minute and live on small freshwater 
prawns of the family Atyidae. They appear to. be specially 
modified for this purpose, the sucker by means of which they 
cling to their host being transformed into an organ capable of 
clasping the very delicate structures to which they adhere. 
Polyzoa (or Bryozoa as some prefer to call them) 
were first noticed in Indian ponds by the late Dr. H. J. Carter” 
of the Bombay Medical Service. I shall have a good deal to 
say in another part of the lecture about this group, of which at 
least fifteen species are now known to occur in fresh water in 
India. A large proportion of these species are either identical 
with or closely allied to European forms, but one of them, 
Hislopia lacustris, Carter, is interesting. as being related to a 
genus (Arachnoidea) * only known to occur in Lake Tanganyika 
and at one time believed to support the Boy svete ae 
lacustris is an exclusively freshwater species, having a wide 
range in eastern tropical Asia. The only genus of freshwater 
polyzoa as yet known only from India (Sto an 
ally of the cosmopolitan genus Plumatella) has only lately been 
discovered. It is represented by two species, one of which 
occurs in the plains while the other has only been found in the 
~ 
tas) 
~ 
Sy 
Freshwater Polyp, a practically cosmopolitan animal ; but no 
published record of its occurrence in India existed until quite 
recently, We now know that at least two species are found, 
one (H. oligactis) in the Punjab and the Western Himalayas, 
the other (a tropical phase of H. vulgaris) ® all over the plains of 
India an ma. In some respects another coelenterate 
recently found in India for the first time, namely the medusa 
or jelly-fish Limnocnida,® is moreinteresting. It was discovered 


| Mrazek, Sitz. Béhm. Ges. Wiss., Prag., Math. Nat. el., No. 36, p. | 
(1906). [Since the lecture was delivered I have procured a copy of Dr. 
re paper and find that the Indian form represents distinct 
10ugh related genus. 9-v-12.] 
2 Ann. Mag Nat. Hist. (3) I, p. 169 (1858), (3) III. p. 331 (1859). 
8 Annandale, Rec. Ind. Mus. VI, p. 199, diagram, p. 200 ae . 
* Annandale, Rec. Ind. Mus. III, p. 279 (1909), and Faun. Brit. tn ” 
6. - 
5 Described as Hydra orientalis in Mem. A.S.B., i, p. 339 hee a 
recognized as a phase of H. vulgaris in Faun. Brit. Ind., tom. cit., Pi g B. 
6 Annandale, Nature LXXXVII, p. 144 (Ue Se 
1911, p. exxiii, 
