The natural history of the British Entomostraca / By W. Baird.

  • Baird, William, 1803-1872.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The natural history of the British Entomostraca / By W. Baird. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    that a person ignorant of the izhabitants would not fail at first sight to call them so; and the very singular phe- nomenon of annulose animals being so covered with a shell, has supplied to Miuller the name of “xtomostracon, a term derived from two Greek words signifying “an insect with a shell.”’* Previous to the appearance of Miiller’s work, the few species which were known were arranged under one genus, Monoculus ; and they were so called from their possessing, or appearing to possess, only one eye. Schceffer proposed the name Branchipodes tor them, from their feet possessing branchial appendages; and Miller says he would have pre- ferred this name to that of Monoculus, were it not that several genera wanted these organs. ‘The genera, however, which he mentions, are the Nauplus and Amymone, and the Cythere. The two former are only the imperfect young of the genus Cyclops, and the latter has branchial ap- pendages attached to the jaws. ‘These facts, however, he was not aware of, and therefore he preferred to either of the above names that of Hntomostraca ; aname which has been retained by almost all succeeding authors. We find several of these little creatures figured by some of the earlier writers on natural history, and more especially by the microscopical observers of the day. Swammerdam, Redi, Leeuwenhoek, Trembley, : Baker, Frisch, and Joblot have given figures at least, and some of them descriptions, of several species, while Schceffer has written three separate memoirs upon three different genera, with minute details, and many illustrative figures. Linneus in 1758 arranged all that were then known under one genus, Monoculus, except two; and Geoffroy, Strom, Goeze, Herbst, and De Geer soon afterwards added to the number. It is to the celebrated Danish naturalist, Otho Fredericus Miler, however, that we are most indebted. ‘To him we owe the collecting the various species already made known into one * Miller, Entomost., p. 2.