2 
BRITISH ENTOMOSTRACA. 
that a person ignorant of the inhabitants would not fail 
at first sight to call them so ; and the very singular phe- 
nomenon of annulose animals being so covered with a 
shell, has supplied to Muller the name of Entomostracon , 
a term derived from two Greek words signifying “an 
insect with a shell .” * 
Previous to the appearance of Muller’s work, the few 
species which were known were arranged under one genus, 
Monoculus ; and they were so called from their possessing, 
or appearing to possess, only one eye. Schoeffer proposed 
the name Branchvpodes for them, from their feet possessing 
branchial appendages; and Muller says he would have pre- 
ferred this name to that of Monoculus, were it not that 
several genera wanted these organs. The genera, however, 
which he mentions, are the Nauplius and Amymone, and 
the Gythere. The two former are only the imperfect young 
of the genus Cyclops, and the latter has branchial ap- 
pendages attached to the jaws. These facts., however, 
he was not aware of, and therefore he preferred to either 
of the above names that of JEntomosiraca ; a name which 
has been retained by almost all succeeding authors. 
We find several of these little creatures figured by 
some of the earlier writers on natural history, and more 
especially by the microscopical observers of the day. 
Swammerdam, Redi, Leeuwenhoek, Trembley, Baker, 
Frisch, and J oblot have given figures at least, and some of 
them descriptions, of several species, while Schoeffer 
has written three separate memoirs upon three different 
genera, with minute details, and many illustrative figures. 
Linnaeus in 1758 arranged all that were then known 
under one genus, Monoculus, except two ; and Geoffroy, 
Strom, Goeze, Herbst, and De Geer soon afterwards 
added to the number. It is to the celebrated Danish 
naturalist, Otho Fredericus Muller, however, that we 
are most indebted. To him we owe the collecting 
the various species already made known into one 
* Miiller, Entomost., p. 2. 
