THE JOUENAL 



OF 



THE LINNEAN SOCIETY. 



Entomostraca and the Surface-film o£ Water. By D. J. 

 ScouEFiELD. (Communicated by L. C. Miall, F.E.S., 

 F.L.S., Professor of Biology, Torksliire College, Leeds.) 



[Read 1st March, 1894.] 



(Plates I. & II.) 

 ALTHOuan it lias long been recognised that the curious physical 

 properties possessed by the surface-film of water render it of 

 considerable importance to many of the smaller aquatic animals, 

 the question of the specific relation of these creatures to 

 the surface-film seems to have been somewhat neglected by 

 naturalists. Many observations have of course been recorded 

 and some valuable suggestions made in this connection, notably 

 those by Prof. L. C. Miall, P.E.S., in his Lectures on " Some 

 Difficulties in the Life of Aquatic Insects " and on " The 

 Surface-film of "Water and its relation to the Life of Plants and 

 Animals "*; but nothing that has yet been done can be consi- 

 dered to have exhausted the subject. On the contrary, it is 

 quite certain that a large amount of observational work is still 

 required among all classes of aquatic Invertebrates ; and it is 

 mainly as a small contribution towards this end that the following 

 notes and deductions concerning the freshwater Entomostraca 

 are now brought forward. Notwithstanding the necessary in- 



* Reported in ' Nature,' vol. xliv. p. 457, and vol. xlvi. p. 7. 

 LINN. JOURN. — ZOOLO&T, VOL. XXV. 1 



