Page:VCH Cornwall 1.djvu/341

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CRUSTACEANS attached to Fucus serratus, covered with Sertul. pumila, Laomedea Geniculata, and L. gelatinosa, Nov. 1 2th, 1 847, hundreds were thrown on the sands, Gwyllyn-vase, Pennance, etc. sulcata, Mont. [Z,. pectinata, Spengler]. On cork, feathers, or sepiae, etc. : not common. I removed several young ones (May, 1849) from the bottom of a vessel from Leghorn (In Col. Montagu's specimens there were only fifteen ribs ; Mr. Couch's, twenty-eight in one and twenty-nine in another ; and in some of mine there are thirty-eight to forty ribs), Gwyllyn-vase, Swanpool, Pennance, Bream bay, etc. ' Genus Pollicipes. Lamarck. [Leach]. Pollicipes mite!/a, Chenu. [Pollicipes mitella (Linn.)]. From the bottom of the schooner Mary Ann, of Jersey, laden with oil, from Gallipoli, Naples, Jan. 5th, 1850, dead specimens from beach, near custom-house quay. scalpellum. Lam. Scalpellum vulgar -e, Leach]. Attached to Sertularia polyzonias, S. nigra, Gorgonia verrucosa, etc., deep water, trawl refuse : common. ' Genus Cineras. Leach. [Concboderma, Olfers]. Cineras Cranchii, Leach. Concboderma virgata (Spengler), for which C. virgatum should be read]. Bottoms of vessels : not uncommon. ' Genus Otion. Leach. [Conchoderma, Olfers]. Otton Cuvieri. [Darwin gives Conchoderma aurita (Linn.), for which C. auritum should be read] attached to bottoms of vessels from the Black Sea, Egypt, Leghorn, etc., Custom-house quay, bar sands : not uncommon. ' Genus Alepas Rang. Alepas parasita, Lesson. [Sander Rang]. Attached to umbrella of the Cyanaea tuberculata, Pennance sands, Aug. 1845. In 1846, two from the bottom of a brig from Odessa, Custom-house quay.' From Darwin's own work the following notices may be taken : Concerning Balanus porcatus, da Costa, he says, ' Mr. Jeffreys, who knows this species well, has found it common on the extreme southern shores of England.' * On Bate's authority he reports Alcippe lampas, Hancock, a member of the Lepadidae, from south-eastern shores, off the Eddystone Lighthouse.' 2 In discussing A/epasparasita, he says that it ' has been always taken on Medusae,' and does not reconcile this with the apparent exception of which he had been informed by Mr. Cocks. 3 On the attachment of Scalpellum vulgare Darwin remarks that ' Specimens are attached to various horny corallines, and occasionally to the peduncles of each other,' with a footnote, 'Mr. Peach (Transact. Brit. Assoc. 1845, p. 65) states that this is sometimes the case in Cornwall ; and I have seen a similar instance in a fine group from Naples.' * When dealing with the ' complemental male ' of this species, Darwin acknowledges his great indebtedness ' to Mr. Peach for his unwearied kindness in procuring me fresh specimens.' He had some dozen specimens from Cornwall, on all, or nearly all of which there were these ' parasitic males.' Only on very young specimens they never occur. ' On a Cornish specimen, with a capitulum a little more than one-fifth of an inch in length, it may be mentioned as unusual that there were three males. In young specimens there is generally one male on each scutum, but sometimes there are two, and sometimes none on one side. In large old Cornish specimens I have counted on the two sides together, six, seven, and eight males, and in one Irish specimen no less than ten, seven all close together on one valve, and three on the other, but I do not suppose that these were all alive at the same time.' 6 In bringing to a close this chapter on the Crustaceans of Cornwall I can imagine the mild spirit of modesty suggesting to the author some apology for its inordinate length. What the subject itself more imperiously demands is quite a different attitude not that I should ask pardon for having written too much, but that I should plead the sense of moderation as my only warrant and excuse for having explained too little. Borlase compared the form of the county to a cornucopia. It has proved to be indeed a cornucopia in regard to its crustaceans, and, while that is true of those already known, there can be no doubt that before long the ' horn of plenty ' will be found to contain many more species than as yet it has yielded to science. 1 Balanidae, p. 258. 1 Ibid. p. 530. The name Alcippe being preoccupied, Norman in Ann. Nat. Hist. (1903), Ser. 7, vol. xi, p. 369, substitutes Trypetesa. 3 Lepadidae, pp. 159, footnote, 164. ' Ibid. p. 226. * Ibid. 240. 289 37