SUBMARINE AIR-BREATHING ANIMALS. 



BY MR. JOSEPH SINEL. 



Ox the coast of Jersey and, doubtless, upon that of the 

 neighbouring islands as well, there is a little section of the 

 fauna which has not received the attention it deserves. I 

 allude to air-breathing forms living in the littoral zone, and 

 where some of them must exist in a state of submergence 

 for the greater part of their time. 



In our fresh water ponds, ditches and brooks, we have, 

 of course, a large number of air-breathing forms — Goleoptera 

 Arochnida — and a host of insect larvae; but in all of these 

 the provision for the maintenance of respiration is obvious, 

 either by apparatus for the storage of air — the stock renew- 

 able by a visit to the surface, or by lengthened breathing 

 organs reaching the surface while the animal is submerged : 

 but in the forms, or in most of them, which I am about to 

 enumerate, there is no appearance of any such arrangement, 

 nor even the power of moving fairly through water or rising 

 to the surface. 



The best known and longest on record of these are the 

 little marine beetles : these are represented on our shores by 

 the following : — 



Aepus Robinii. Macrallymma brevipennc. 



Cillenum laterale. Tachys scutellaris. 



It is remarkable that the commonest of the beetles, 

 Aepus fulvescens or "A. maritimus" is not represented upon 

 the coast of Jersey. I cannot speak with certainty of the 

 other islands: but that the supposed rarer form, A. Robinii, 

 is exceedingly common. 



In the bi-monthly Journal de Vanatomie et de la 

 physiolofjie (Paris) I am credited with having found A. 

 fulvescens in Jersey ; but this has crept in in error, all my 

 specimens being of one species, viz., A. Robinii. 



