History of British Entomostraca. 400 



1775;, describes the same species under the name which Swammer- 

 dam had given it, the " Pulex arborescens." Sulzer, in his " Abje- 

 kiirzte geschiclite der insecten," 1776, gives a very indifferent figure 

 of what he calls Mon. jmlex, but which is evidently the D. vetula. 

 Muller, in his paper on the " Cypris," in the " Philosophical Tran- 

 sactions for 1771/' has enumerated several species of this genus 

 also as occurring in Norway and Denmark, but under the general 

 name of Monoculus. In 1776, however, he established the genus 

 Daphne in his " Zoologiae Danicae Prodromus," and describes eight 

 species, only three of which had ever been noticed before his time. In 

 his " Entomostraca/' 1785, he adds one more species, gives figures of 

 all the nine, and a lengthened description of each. He changes the 

 generic name from Daphne to Daphnia, which latter has been 

 adopted by all succeeding authors, and changes the specific names 

 of two species, though without good reasons for so doing. De Geer, 

 in the 7th volume of his " Memoires pour servir a I'Histoire des 

 Insectes," 1778, gives a good many details concerning this genus, 

 pointing out two or three errors into which Swammerdam had fallen, 

 and giving very accurate descriptions of some portions of their ana- 

 tomy. He describes at length, and figures very prettily, and with 

 considerable faithfulness, four different species, two of which previous 

 to this had only been noticed by Muller in his " Zool. Dan. Pro- 

 dromus." Blumenbach, in his " Handbuch der Naturgeschichte," 

 1779, mentions one species of this genus, the Mon. pulex ; and Eich- 

 horn, in his " Beytrage zur Naturgeschichte der Kleinsten Wasser- 

 thiere," 1781, gives a tolerable figure of the same species. Gmelin, 

 in his edition of Linnaeus's " Systema Naturee," 1788, gives all the 

 nine species of Muller, and adds to them the Mon. pediculus, which 

 Muller had formed into a genus by itself, the Polyphemus. Ma- 

 nuel, in the " Encyclopedie Methodique," 1792, gives all Muller's 

 species, merely quoting his descriptions and copying his figures. 

 Fabricius, in his " Entomologia Systematica," 1793, changes Mul- 

 ler's names in one or two instances, but merely gives his nine species. 

 Donovan, in his " Natural History of British Insects," 1802, gives 

 but an indifferent figure of a species taken when in its young state, 

 and which appears to be the D. vetula. He calls it " Monoculus 

 Conchaceus," and makes a few remarks upon its habits and manners, 

 giving a frightful picture of its ferocity and cowardice ! By numerous 

 filaments which it darts forth, he says, it causes such motion in the 

 water as to attract unresistingly the insects in the water to its mouth. 

 "Thus it exists," he concludes, "■ a life of rapine and destruction, en- 

 joyed at the expence of the lives of thousands ; and as the objects of 

 VOL. II. NO. 11, E e 



