A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 
To Mr. James Saunders I am again indebted for a reference to the 
circumstance that at a microscopical meeting of the Bedfordshire Natural 
History Society on January 20, 1880, among other objects of pond life 
‘ Daphne vetula’ was exhibited. The use of this name carries the mind 
back to 1776, when the species intended was actually so called by 
O. F. Miiller. The conspicuously-branched second antenne, to which 
the name Cladocera is due, and which all the Cladocera possess except 
the females of a single genus, are also responsible for the name Daphne. 
Miiller avowedly chose it in allusion to the shrubby antennz, but after- 
wards exchanged it for Daphnia, in order that his shrubby genus in 
zoology might not be confounded with the botanical shrub. At the 
same time he changed the specific name from vetw/a, ‘a little old woman,’ 
to sima, ‘snub-nosed.’ Eventually his genus Daphnia was found to be 
too comprehensive, and this particular species was assigned to a new 
genus, Stmocephalus, by Schoedler, who restored the original specific name, 
so that the Cladocera of Bedfordshire are now represented by Szmocephalus 
vetulus (Miiller). In Daphmia the head is carinate above; in Simocephalus 
the head is convex and blunt. This genus is also devoid of the sharp 
angle or the more or less prolonged spine into which the species of 
Daphnia almost always have the valves produced behind. Like the rest 
of the Daphniide, Simocephalus has one branch three-jointed and the other 
four-jointed in the large second antenne, which are its swimming organs. 
For definitely assigning Ostracoda to the county I can rely on the 
sure authority of Mr. D. J. Scourfield. In 1896 the presence of Candona 
pubescens (Koch) ‘at Pavenham, Bedfordshire,’ was noted by Brady and 
Norman in an appendix to their ‘ Monograph of the Marine and Fresh- 
water Ostracoda of the North Atlantic and of North-Western Europe.’ 
But whereas they expressly attribute this record to Mr. Scourfield, he 
himself in 1898 states that the only known British locality for the 
species in question is Wanstead Park in Essex, ‘as the reference to 
Pavenham in Brady and Norman’s “Monograph” . . . was made under 
a misunderstanding.” To compensate for this disappointment he has 
lately informed me by letter that he has received from his cousin two 
other nearly related species, Candona candida (O. F. Miiller) and Erpeto- 
cypris strigata (O. F. Miiller), the locality for both of them being Paven- 
ham. Both belong to the family Cypride in the section Podocopa. 
The generic name Erfetocypris means the creeping Cypris, and in the 
definition Brady and Norman say that ‘the power of swimming is lost, 
and the habits of the animals, which creep along the bottom, are thus 
very different from those of Cypris.’* In the same way however Baird, 
in defining Candona, remarks that ‘the animal creeps at the bottom or 
upon aquatic plants, instead of swimming freely through the water.’ 
But Candona, though similar in habit to Erpetocypris, is distinguished 
from it, as also from Cypris, by having no branchial plate on the second 
maxille. Erpetocypris strigata has the lower margin of the shell nearly 
1 Trans. R. Dublin Soc. (1896), ser. 2, v. 729. 2 The Essex Naturalist (1898), x. 322. 
8 Trans. R. Dublin Soc. (1889), ser. 2, iv. 84. * British Entomostraca, Ray Society (1850), p. 159. 
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