CRUSTACEANS In this county carcinology has been treated as the Cinderella of the sciences. How absolutely neglect and indifference have been its portion, the records of the famous Woolhope Club bear witness. While those transactions teem with the virtues and vices of fungi, the problems and identifications of fossils, the figures of noble trees, and a wealth of valuable information in general, the living crustaceans of Herefordshire scarcely engage a passing allusion. Thus, in 1869, the president for that year, Mr. James Rankin, in his address on the ' Distribution of Animals,' when discussing the Annulosa, says, ' In this sub-kingdom we have examples of both terrestrial and aquatic animals : amongst the former are the spiders, insects, and earthworms ; and amongst the latter the crustaceans, most ringed worms, the star-fishes, &c.' ^ In this arrangement he overlooked or put out of sight the fact that in his own county there were plenty of land crustaceans, the Isopoda terrestria, which have had their true place in classification disguised by the nickname of woodhce. In 188 1 the Rev. A Ley read a paper on the ' Pondweeds of Herefordshire,' in which he says, ' Considering the complete absence of all that can be called fen, or fen ditches, and the comparatively small area of pond or canal in the county, I do not consider that Herefordshire is badly - represented in pondweeds.' ^ It was not the province of a botanist to discuss the fauna of ponds, but it should not be forgotten that several of the entomostracan Crustacea find in very small and weedy pieces of water their favourite habitat. Of the higher Malacostraca we have in England only one truly inland species, the river crayfish, properly called Potamobius pallipes (LerebouUet) . This occurs in Herefordshire, and is in fact once mentioned in the Woolhope 'Transactions.^ For the occurrence of the crayfish we have the more ancient testimony of John Duncomb, M.A., in his 'Collections towards the History and Antiquities of the County of Hereford.' He informs us that ' trout, gudgeons, eels, and crayfish are taken in the Munnow.'* In addition to this watercourse he notes the Wye, Lugg, Arrow, Frome, Leadon or Leddon, and the Teme or Team with its pearl-bearing muscles or mussels, and then observes that ' a variety of inferior brooks come in aid of the rivers and streams noticed above ; of which the chief are the Garran and the Gamar, abounding in crayfish, which are in season during the summer.' ^ From this > Trans. Woolhope Nat. Field Club, 1869 (1870), p. 18. ^ Ibid. 1881-Z (1888). The date of publication was late owing to prolonged loss of the MS. ' Ibid. 1895, 1896, 1897 (1898), p. 296. ' Op. cit. vol. i (1804), p. 166. ' Ibid. 167. 112
