The metamerism of Nephelis, with a description of Nephelis lateralis (Verrill)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1899 Excerpt: ... for aid and advice, and to Prof. S. A. Forbes, of the University of Illinois, for the privilege of examining the specimens of Nephelis collected by him under the auspices of the U. S. Fish Commission in the Yellowstone region in Wyoming. Historical. In 1767 Linne enumerated nine species of leeches in one genus, Hirudo. This classification was followed by most later authors, for example, Cuvier, Blumenbach, Carena, and Dumeril, until about 1817, when Savigny, in his Systbne des Annelides, announced the separation of Linne's genus into seven genera. The name Nephelis appears in this work for the first time, although Oken set this leech apart from Hirudo in 1815 under the name Helluo, which genus was to include all fresh-water leeches not provided with jaws. In 1818 Lamarck, at the suggestion of Blainville, proposed the name Erpobdella, which Blainville (1828) urged for acceptance because it contained the descriptive part "bdella." In 1826 Moquin-Tandon adopted Savigny's name Nephelis and continued it in the second edition of his Monographic des Hirudine'es (1). The name has since become generally accepted, notwithstanding the fact that Oken's Helluo holds priority and Lamarck's Erpobdella is more descriptive. The first description of Nephelis in America was made by Thomas Say (2) in 1824 under the name of Hirudo lateralis. In 1872 Verrill (3) changed this to Nephelis lateralis, which, for reasons given in another part of this paper, I have given to the leech I have studied. Methods. The leeches are easily kept in aquaria, for which I used the low glass dishes known as crystallizing dishes, or white earthen 1 A. Moquin-Tandon: Monographie de la famille des hirudinees. Paris. 1846. 2 T. Say: Major Long's Second Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River, vol...