Half hours with the lower animals : $b protozoans, sponges, corals, shells, insects, and crustaceansHolder, Charles Frederick
Science
Half hours with the lower animals : $b protozoans, sponges, corals, shells, insects, and crustaceans
Holder, Charles Frederick
Animals; Invertebrates
Along the beach beneath seaweed, we shall find Gammarus, a long, very
small, but mighty jumper, that at night emits a red light. Many of
the near relatives of this little creature are phosphorescent, and
perhaps the most beautiful of all is one named Idotea phosphorea. It
is a yellowish spotted little creature found in pools alongshore. It
darts about among the weed, and would rarely, if ever, be noticed
during the day; but at night the entire animal seems permeated with
a golden light which marks it in vivid lines against the dark bottom,
and flashes and miniature meteors indicate it as it dashes across the
little pool, its ocean world.
The most beautiful of all crustaceans is the one known as Sapphirina. I
have seen the ocean filled with them; some red, others blue or yellow,
purple or green, all known gems being imitated by these matchless
gems of the sea, which in daylight vie with the most brilliant
iridescence in producing wonderful displays. No more beautiful scene
can be imagined than that embracing these living gems, standing out in
brilliant tints against the deep blue of the ocean. These gems also
have the gift of phosphorescence and at night appear in a new guise.
One of the singular long-legged spider crabs of the deep sea,
Colossendeis, is said to be phosphorescent. Giglioli, the Italian
naturalist, describes a crab which gives a golden purple light, the
latter appearing from the thorax. The little shrimp, Mysis, which
carries its young in a pouch, from which it is called the opossum
shrimp, is not phosphorescent, but its young in what is called the
zoëa stage are luminous. The odd-shaped little creature, which is the
mantis shrimp in one of its stages, is brilliantly luminous, not over
its entire body, but in the eyestalks. Some of the deep-sea crabs have
luminous eyes, strange monsters wandering in the abysmal regions of the
deep sea.
While most of these crabs have the light in only one place, one
discovered by Sir Joseph Banks was luminous over its entire surface.
Exactly what the luminous matter is, is not known, but in some
instances it can be scraped off and will render the hands luminous
when rubbed upon them. According to A. M. Norman, naturalist of the
_Porcupine_ expedition, the crustacean Ethusa, found at a depth of
eighteen hundred feet, is blind, its eyestalk being spiny, and the
eye replaced by a smooth, round termination which is supposed to be a
light-emitting organ. Aristeus has phosphorescent eyes, which blaze
with the yellow fire of a cat's eye, and this is true of many other
crustaceans. Some have luminous backs; others have fiery bands upon the
legs, while almost every portion of the body of some species is the
seat of this wonderful light. That the lights are of some use there can
be little doubt. In one little creature Dr. Gunther found a brilliant
light stationed between its eyes, which certainly was a light to
illumine its way in the deep, dark bed of the ocean.
XVIII. THE INSECTS
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