292 
BRITISH ENTOMOSTRACA. 
and consists each of a broad, foliaceous, elongated plate, 
as a basal joint, and one small single branch springing 
from its side. The inferior edge of this plate is sharply 
notched, and on its upper surface, covered by the last 
segment of the thorax, there is a thick, waved, projecting 
fold. 
The oviferous tubes spring, as is usual in the animals 
of this order, from the inferior surface of the last thoracic 
segment of the body, where it articulates with the abdomen. 
They are very long and slender, but instead of projecting 
externally, as in the other families already described, they 
are twisted upon each other in numerous loops, and lie 
concealed in the hollow space between the abdomen and 
the large, buckler-shaped, last segment of the thorax. 
This peculiar structure was pointed out by Lamartiniere, 
but he fancied these tubes to be the intestines. In the 
specimen he describes, he says, “ son ventre etait rempli 
par un paquet d’intestins de forme ventriculaire, de la 
grosseur d’un cheveu.” (Loc. cit., p. 207.) 
Little has been observed of the habits and manners of 
the animals of this genus. Lamartiniere found them fixed 
upon the gills of the Diodon, or sun-fish of the coasts of 
California. In the specimens from the Irish coast and 
from the English shores, they were taken from the Ortha- 
goriscus molce , or short sun-fish. They have been taken 
off* the same fish on the French coast. Risso says, that 
those in the Mediterranean “ float in thousands upon the 
surface of the sea, far away from the coast, and serve as 
food for the wandering fishes, especially the Cephale lune , 
whose stomach is always filled with an astonishing quan- 
tity of these animals.” — Hist. Nat. Eur. mer., v, 141. 
