356 EAMBLES OF A NATUEALIST. [Oh. XXI. 



curious. There was not unfrequently a well-marked differ- 

 ence in the character of its contents by day, as compared 

 with its captures during the night. Thus, for example, 

 after being down for an hour or two one evening, I drew it 

 up with a solid mass of minute Zoese ; but although anchored 

 at the same spot, in the produce of the succeeding night 

 there was not a single Zoea, but in their place transparent 

 Crustacea (*Leucifers), Entomostraca, &c. The glass-crabs 

 also (Phyllosoma) always made their appearance in the 

 night net. These curious little Zoess, now known to be the 

 young condition of some species of crab, had enormous eyes, 

 and grotesque helmets spiked before and behind. On the 

 occasion referred to they appeared to be all of the same 

 species, and nowhere else were they in. such profusion, 

 although sporadically met with, especially on the coast of 

 Borneo. 



I have elsewhere stated that the east coast of Formosa 

 yielded perhaps the greatest variety of miaute and incon- 

 spicuous, but at the same time highly interesting and 

 curious, animals to the towing-net. Off Kackaou a single 

 haul has produced a crowd of Entomostraca (minute Crus- 

 tacea with a jerking locomotipn), little Medusae and AnneKds ; 

 the Pteropod, Creseis ; the tube-worm, Cerapus ; blue 

 Porpitee ; minute Globigerinae ; and numbers of little fat 

 crab-like Megalopas, now known to be an advanced stage of 

 Zoea in the development of Crustacea. Sometimes rarer 

 and more remarkable animals occurred, as the shelled Ptero- 

 pods, Spirialis, Cleodora, and Hyalsea; transparent Firolse, 

 arrow-shaped Sagittse, inert glass-crabs (Phyllosoina), ele- 

 gant hyaline Crustacea (Alima and SquiUerichthus, &c.), 

 active shrimps of various degrees of transparency and 

 minuteness, the oceanic nudibranch Glaucus, the spider-Hke 



