The animal life of our seashore With special reference to the New Jersey coast and the southern shore of Long Island . OUR CARCI NO LOGICAL FRIENDS. 95 A common object—indeed, one of the commonestobjects of the sands—is the cylindrical mole crabor * sand-bug {Hippa emerita),whose vertical burrows openup in great number, partic-ularly in the lower tidal re-gion. The animal is a remark-ably rapid burrower, pushingitself head downward by meansof its anterior or thoracic a rule, but little organicmatter is found within the ali-mentary canal of the mole crab,which appears to subsist largely
The animal life of our seashore With special reference to the New Jersey coast and the southern shore of Long Island . OUR CARCI NO LOGICAL FRIENDS. 95 A common object—indeed, one of the commonestobjects of the sands—is the cylindrical mole crabor * sand-bug {Hippa emerita),whose vertical burrows openup in great number, partic-ularly in the lower tidal re-gion. The animal is a remark-ably rapid burrower, pushingitself head downward by meansof its anterior or thoracic a rule, but little organicmatter is found within the ali-mentary canal of the mole crab,which appears to subsist largelyupon the nutriment extracted from the swallowedsand. It constitutes a favorite article of food withmany Hippa emerita. BEACH-FLEAS, HOPPERS, AND SOW-BUGS. A walk at almost any hour along the sandy beachis sure to stir up a number of the little hoppingcrustaceans to which the name of beach-flea or* sand-flea has been applied {Orchestia agilis, PI. 7,Fig. 6). They hop up in front of your footsteps,and leave with equal celerity the seat that may havebeen selected for you, but not until you have turnedover the long line of sea-wrack (dried sea-weed)which fronts the ocean at high-water mark can youhave any just conception of the multitudes that arehere busily engaged in performing the ofiices of thepublic scavenger. Decayed and decaying parts ofboth plants and animals are equally acceptable to 96 OUR CARCINOLOGICAL FRIENDS. the beach-flea. Examine the legs of one of theseanimals, and you will observe that they are disposedon either side in two dissimilar series; hence thename of Amphipoda, double-footed, that has beenapplied to the broad group to which the hopperbelongs. Two closely related,
Size: 1301px × 1920px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectmarineanimals, bookye
