Page:VCH Sussex 1.djvu/307

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CRUSTACEANS Hesse succeeded in persuading a tolerably large fraction of his scientific brethren that this was indisputably the case. For a long time Leach's Gnathia was in general ignored in favour of Anceus, Risso, 1816, and while the husband was assigned to a family Anceids, the wife and chil- dren were placed in a quite distinct family, Pranizids. The adult male is square-headed, with strangely projecting mandibles, while the adult female has a subtriangular head, with no effective mandibles at all. The young ones are blood-sucking parasites, with appropriate stilets for procuring the juices of fish. On consideration of all the changing characters it will not be thought that the naturalists who went astray about the relationships of these voracious little animals were wholly without excuse. The lEgidx are another family fond of fish. Under the description of what they call /Ega bicarinata. Leach, it is said by Bate and Westwood that ' specimens from St. Leonards are in the Hopeian collection at Oxford.' ' But Schiodte and Meinert point out that Leach's species is a synonym of the earlier /E. rosacea (Risso), and that Bate and Westwood have in their account mixed up two species, Risso's rosacea and the still larger M. stromii, Lutken, which sometimes attains a length of just upon 2 inches.^ With which of the two species Sussex is to be credited awaits determination until the specimens in the Hope Museum have been reinspected. In the Cirolanidas the little Eurydice achata (Slabber), better known as £. pulchra. Leach, occurs in the sands of Sussex. It is praised for the beautiful markings of its sur- face, and blamed for the biting propensities of its equally beautiful mouth-organs.' The timber-destroying ' gribble,' Limuoria lignorum (J. Rathke), which gives its name to the family Limnoriids, is mentioned by Mr. Guermonprez as common. From the parasitic family Bopyridas, Bopyrus squillarum, Latreille, is reported by the Natural History of Hastings,* and in fact wherever the prawn Leander serratus abounds this companion is likely to be found nestling in a compact little family group under the carapace of one specimen or another. Gyge galathece. Bate and Westwood, is recorded by Mr. Guermonprez. Of the Idoteidaj the Natural History records Idotea linearis (Linn.) and the exceedingly common /. tricuspidata, for which the more correct name appears to be I. balthica (Pallas).* Mr. Guermonprez' list contains both of these, and also /. pelagica. Leach. Mr. Henry Scherren, F.Z.S., has sent me /. viridis (Slabber) from Seaford. This is a family of narrow species. The Spha- romidsB, on the other hand, are of such a shape that they can roll up into a more or less perfect ball. Of these the Natural History of Hastings records Spharofna serratum (Fabricius) from Fairlight and Pett Level, the marshes and beach between Cliff End and Winchelsea," in addition to two species of which the occurrence was previously known. Of S. bookeri. Leach, Bate and Westwood say : ' We have received specimens of this species from Mr. Slade, who found them at Bexhill, near St. 1 British Sessile-eyed Cruitacea, ii. 280. 2 fiaturhistorisk Tidsshift (1879), '^- 3' "• 353- 3 Stebbing, Annals and Magazine Nat. Hist. (1875), ser. 4, xv. 78. * p. 4.1. ^ p. 41- ^ First Supplement, p. 45. 261