LERNEADiE. 
311 
blind.* Baker, in the ‘ Philosophical Transactions* for 
1744, vol. xliii, describes a somewhat similar “ new dis- 
covered sea-insect,** which he calls “ the eye-sucker,** and 
which he found “ fixed by the snout*' to the eyes of sprats. 
The figure is very poorly executed, so much so, that it is 
not possible exactly to make out the species ; but a Lernea 
does infest the common sprat of this country, and has been 
figured by Mr. J. Sowerby in the ‘ British Miscellany.* f 
In 1746 Linnaeus, in his ‘ Fauna Suecica,* first edition, 
described a parasitic animal found upon the Cyprinus 
Carassius , “ whose blood it sucks.** He established from 
this species the genus Lernea. In his ‘ Iter Wast Gotha,* 
1747, he notices another species found on the gills of a 
species of Gadus ; and in his second edition of the ‘ Fauna 
Suec.,* 1761, he adds a third, as inhabiting the gills of 
the salmon, which had been figured and described by 
Gisler, in the ‘Act. Holmens.* (Kongl.Vetensk. Handling.) 
for 1751, under the name of Pediculus salmonis.\ In 
the ‘Syst. Nat.,* 12tli edition, 1766, he adds a fourth 
species to the list, and up to that time these four consti- 
tuted all that Linnaeus admitted into the genus Lernea — 
a genus which, since his time, notwithstanding the diffi- 
culties attending its investigation, has increased a hundred- 
fold, and now constitutes a large family. So bizarre in 
appearance are these Lerneae, that Linnaeus had no idea 
that they belonged to the Crustacea ; on the contrary, he 
places them amongst the worms. 
“ Of all the curious creatures which the naturalist meets 
with in his researches,*’ says Hr. Johnston, “ there are 
none more paradoxical than the Lerneae ; none which are 
more at variance with our notions of animal conformation, 
and which exhibit less of that decent proportion between 
a body and its members which constitutes what we choose 
to call symmetry or beauty.** § It is no wonder, then, 
* Decuria, ii, p. 126. 
f The Lerneonema monillaris, M. Edwards. 
X Act. Holmens., 1751, p. 181, t. 6, f. 1-5. 
§ Loudon’s Magazine of Natural History, viii, 565. 
