T HE ANNALS AND MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY, [THIRD SERIES.] No. 3. MARCH 1858. XVI. — On the Nidification of Crustacea. By C. Spence Bate, F.L.S._, Corr. Memb. of the Dublin University Zoological and Botanical Association*. [With a Plate.] That animals build nests, some for temporary and others for permanent occupation, is well known; but that any which dwell beneath the sea should do so, was not formerly supposed possible ; and I believe that it is among the more recent of dis-covered facts that some species of Crustacea habitually dwell in abodes of their own construction. The American naturalist, Sayf, was the first who discovered one of the Amphipoda in a small tube which he believed it to occupy as a tenant, in the same way as the Pagurus Bernhardus takes possession of the shell of the Whelk, &c. The tube, which was cylindrical, membranaceous, diaphanous, and open at each end. Say thought to have been constructed by an Annelid which had either vacated or been driven from its home; the tube was then taken possession of by the Amphipod. For this animal Say established the genus Cerapus, and named the species tuhularis. He describes the animal as being very active, running with great facility amongst the branches of Fucus, Sertularia, &c., although encumbered by its tube, and, what he thought to be very extraordinary, made use of its four antennae only as feet, the proper feet being all included within the tube, with the exception of the two anterior pairs (gnatho-* Communicated by the author, having been read at the Plymouth Institution and Devon and Cornwall Natural History Society, on Feb. 1st, 1858. t Trans. Philad. Soc. vol. i. Arm. ^ Mag, N. Hist, Ser. 3. fW. i. 11
BioStor
