Page:VCH Lancaster 1.djvu/225

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CRUSTACEANS remarks that only a few specimens were obtained ' from the mud collected on the mussel beds between Morecambe and Heysham,' and that the elongate form of the animal, the short first antennas and the small fifth feet are among its distinctive characters. Idya minor (T. and A. Scott) was taken by the latter at a very low ebb near Piel. Thalestris harpactoides (Claus) has been found at Duddon by A. Scott ; Canthocampus minutus (Jurine) by Weigh tman at Seaforth.^ C. palustris (Brady) is thus noticed by Scott : ' A considerable number of specimens of a copepod apparently belonging to this species were washed from mud adhering to samples of mussels (Mytilus edulis) sent from the St. Anne's mussel beds near Lytham ; one of the samples was from that part of the beds which never becomes dry at low water, and was obtained by means of a " mussel rake " ' ; the specimens, it is added, ' differ a little from the figures given by Dr. Brady.' ^ Thompson reports Mesochra lilljeborgii (Boeck) as ' found in mud taken in a brackish tribu- tary of the Mersey at Hale ' ; Paramesochra dubia (Scott), ' in mud collected by Mr. Corbin from the Duddon cockle beds at the mouth of the River Duddon, near Barrow'; Tetragoniceps bradyi (Scott), 'found only at same times and habitat as the last named species ' ; and Cletodes linearis (Claus), ' in mud from Hale shore taken at low water.' ^ C propinquus (Brady and Robertson) is reported by A. Scott from Piel and Morecambe ; Laophonte serrata (Claus) and L. lamellifera (Claus) from Piel ; h. curticauda ( Boeck) from Duddon ; L. intermedia (T. Scott) from Duddon and Morecambe. Delavalia palustris (Brady) is reported from Duddon by Scott, and from Hale by Thompson, who speaks of it as a mud-loving species, of which the male is very rare. Jonesiella hyance (I. C. Thompson) has been found at Ulverston in the stomach of a young dab,* but, as Sars has pointed out, the dab of the fiiture must be entreated to consume it under the earlier generic name of Danielssenia (Boeck). ^ Ameira exigua (T. Scott) has been found by A. Scott in the mussel beds at Piel. A. exilis (T. and A. Scott) is noted by Thompson, who writes : ' This slender and characteristic species was taken amongst material collected from holes dug in the soft mud near the remains of the old steamboat pier, Piel; not uncommon; March, 1899.' He also names Stenhelia intermedia (T. Scott) as taken ' in the same locality as the last ; August, 1898 ; rare.'* Concerning Nannopus palustris (Brady), Mr. A. Scott writes : ' Several specimens of this species were obtained in the mud collected from the Fleetwood oyster beds. It seems to be a brackish water species, and in general appearance is very like Platychelipus littoralis, another brackish water copepod ; it can be distinguished from that species, however, even without dissecting, by making an examination of the fifth pair of feet and also of the inner branches of the third and fourth pairs of feet. Nannopus palustris has two ovisacs and Platychelipus littoralis one only.' Of P. littoralis (Brady) Mr. Thompson had earlier reported that ' this striking species occurs in abundance in mud taken at low water ' at Hale and various other places, males and females being about equally plentiful. We now leave the Arpacticidae, and must pause over only a few of the remaining species, many of which are semi-parasitic or wholly parasitic, and 1 Fauna of Liverpool, 55. ^ Trans. Liverp. Biol. Soc. x. 140. s Qp. cit. vii. 197, 200.

  • Op. cit. ix. 109. 5 Annuaire Mus. Zool. Acad. Imper. St. Petersbourg, Jana Exped. p. 21 (1898).

6 Trans. Liverp. Biol. Soc. xiv. 140 (1900). Op. cit. vii. zoi. 173