Page:VCH Essex 1.djvu/256

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A HISTORY OF ESSEX The next family, the Cyclopidae, derives its name from the old, much restricted, but still very extensive genus Cyclops^ O. F. Mviller. In this the county possesses C. strenuus, Fischer ; C. leuckarti, Claus ; C. oithonoides, Sars ; C. dybowskii, Lande, an addition to the British fauna ; C. bicuspidatus, Claus ; C. languidus, Sars ; C. verna/is, Fischer ; C. bisetosus, Rehberg ; C. viridis (Jurine), of which Lubbock's C. brevicornis and the C. gigas of Claus are now usually regarded as synonyms, but Scourfield urges that in Epping Forest gigas (the typical viridis) is not connected by any intermediate links with brevicornis ; that the former is an exceed- ingly widely distributed form, but rarely occurs in the open waters of ponds of moderate size, whilst the latter, on the contrary, is practically only found in such situations'; in addition to which he notices that gigas can always be distinguished from brevicornis by the presence of a line of hairs on the inner margin of each caudal ramus and by its longer ovisacs ; C. bicolor, Sars; C.fuscus (Jurine); C. albidus (Jurine); C. bistriatus, Koch, a peculiar and rare form, of which it has been suggested that it ' is really a hybrid between C.fuscus and C. albidus,' but with some peculiarities of its own ; * as stated by Koch the anterior portion of the carapace [in the Essex specimens] was finely spotted with brown whilst the posterior thoracic segments and the feet were blue or rather blue-green : to the naked eye the whole animal appeared of a blue-green colour, and attracted attention at once as something out of the common ' ; the specimens were found in ponds at Rectory Lane, Loughton, Ambresbury Banks and Lodge Road leading to Copped Hall ; C. serrulatus, Fischer ; C. (?) macrurus, Sars, ' a very doubtful Epping Forest species,' perhaps a variety of C. serrulatus with exceptionally long caudal rami ; C. prasinus (Jurine) ; C. ajfinis, Sars ; C. pbaleratus, Koch ; C.Jimbriatus, Fischer. The third family is named Harpacticidas, after the genus which Milne-Edwards in 1 840 named Arpacticus. But this family should be called the Canthocampidae, if we include in it the earlier genus Cantho- campus, Westwood, 1836. Of this genus Essex is credited with seven species, C. stapbylinus (Jurine) ; C. minutus, Claus ; C. trispinosus, Brady ; C. nortbumbricus, Brady ; C. crassus, Sars ; C. pygmaus, Sars, of which it is remarked that ' next to C. staphylinus this is the commonest species of the genus : the records would not have been nearly so numerous however if the practice of washing wet mosses had not been adopted'; C. zscbokkei, Schmeil. To these must be added Nitocra hibernica (Brady) and Moraria anderson-smithi, T. and A. Scott, of which it is observed that ' on each of the three occasions when this species has been taken it has been associated with sphagnum moss.' For the sake of completeness in the history of the county one may regret that its marine Entomostraca have not been investigated with the assiduity, the trustworthy skill and ample learning which Mr. Scourfield has brought to bear upon those of its inland waters. But, on the other hand, had all sections of the Crustacean class been made the objects of equally thorough research, to have drawn up an adequate account of them within any reasonable compass might have proved an almost 218