04 SUBMARINE AIR-BREATHING ANIMALS. 



water mark to (in the case of /Epophilus and Geophilus) 

 low tide level. I have also found Mpopkilus at large among 

 the sponges and clusters of compound ascidians in caves at 

 extreme low spring tide level. 



The question of how respiration is carried on, or what 

 peculiarity of organisation admits of its suspension during 

 submergence, is a point of much interest. 



In Anurida, however, it is not difficult of solution. The 

 close furry coats of these little animals retain sufficient air, 

 no doubt, for consumption during their brief submergence, 

 and it is possible that under the elytra the Goleoptera take in 

 a sufficient supply, but in Obisium, the Arachnids, dSpophilus 

 and Geophilus, the case is otherwise, the few scattered hairs 

 on these would not hold the globules, nor when they are 

 examined in a phial of sea- water under the lens is there any 

 appearance of a storage of air. JUpophilus, I have already 

 said, has been found m situations where it would have no 

 access to air more than six or eight times in a year, e.g., the 

 lower Guilot cave by Dr. Kcehler, caves in the " Dog's Nest," 

 and the " Grande Hazette " rocks at the limit of a 38 foot tide 

 by myself. It is, therefore, evident that storage would be 

 useless for such long periods. 



It is the opinion of M. G. Pouchet, who has made many 

 experiments on this subject, that their respiration* can be 

 suspended, for he finds that even such insects as the Cock- 

 chafer are not killed by so long an immersion as ninety-six 

 hours, but then we have to deal with some forms that as far 

 as we can see never have access to the atmosphere at all, viz., 

 the deep-water Acari, numbers of which can be seen on every 

 scrap of weed and zoophyte brought up by the trawl from 

 twenty-five to thirty fathoms deep on this coast. 



The question which now arises is, " Is it not possible that 

 there are some other means of oxygenation than those we are 

 familiar with ? " 



I would be glad to find that some of the members of this 

 Society with more leisure than I, unfortunately, am possessed 

 of, had taken up this interesting question. 



P.S. — In enumerating the marine air-breathing forms, 

 I have not thought fit to include the larvae of dipterous and 

 other insects of which some four or five are known to me as 

 marine, for these are mostly taken on the tow net upon 

 the surface, and offer no problem as to their facilities for 

 respiration. 



