CYCLOPINE. 
197 
again, Jurine found that the first part of the body to 
show irritability and a return of motion was not the heart, 
as perhaps might be expected, but the alimentary canal ; 
the heart seems to be the next, then the antennae, and last 
the feet. 
De Geer asserts, that the Cyclopidae, along with the 
other Monoculi, are nourished by animalcules. Leeuwen- 
hoek, in addition to this, asserts, that when deprived of 
other food, they devour their own young. De Geer also 
says that he has seen this frequently to be the case. 
Jurine has repeatedly witnessed the same ; but says, in 
vindication of his beloved insects, that it would appear 
from what he has noticed, that they do not do so from 
taste , but that the helpless young cannot resist the action 
of the whirlpool the mother causes around her, and are 
carried unconsciously into her mouth.* I have also ob- 
served the sudden disappearance of the young when no 
other animals were in the vessel but their mother, and 
who, it is most probable, must have devoured them ; and 
from what I have noticed, I think the variety albidus of 
the species quadricornis , is the one which possesses this 
carnivorous propensity in the greatest degree. Muller, 
however, maintains that the Cyclops quadricornis , as well as 
others of the Entomostraca, live upon vegetable food ; and 
I have mentioned above (p. 5) the experiment he insti- 
tuted upon the subject.f But notwithstanding this, it is 
evident he labours under a mistake ; and there is every 
reason to presume, that their being carnivorous serves a 
most useful purpose in the economy of nature. The 
adults, in their turn, fall victims to and are devoured by 
other insects, the chief of which are the Hydrachnae, 
Hydrae, and larvae of aquatic insects, which destroy them 
in such vast numbers, as in some measure to counter- 
balance the most extraordinary fertility which they 
possess. 
* Vide the observations of M. Joly upon the Artemia salina , supra, p. 59. 
f Geoffroy also says that all the Monoculi live upon vegetable matter 
alone. — Hist, abreg. aes Ins., ii, 654. 
