Notes on a Sapphirina and a Salpa caught off the Cape of Good Hope

Abstract

When I captured these animals I was a passenger on board the ship Invercargill, Captain John Muir, then on a voyage from London to Port Chalmers, N.Z. Nothing unusual was noticed in the appearance of the sea, which was calm, until the afternoon, when the water was filled with brilliant blue stars, floating past the ship in great numbers. With a small canvas bag I succeeded in fishing up several of the blue stars, which were a species of Sapphirina, and two or three other animals, non-luminous, one of which was a Salpa democratica. I kept them in a glass of sea water till the 29th, when an unfortunate accident killed them, and having only a small magnifying glass, I was prevented from making a full examination of all. I preserved the sketches I was able to make, and through the kindness of Mr. Morton, of the Royal Society's Museum, I lately received from Mr. Haswell, of Sydney, information as to the species and construction of the animals depicted. The two small crustaceans correspond so closely with the descriptions and drawings of the male and female of Sapphirina gemma, as given by J. D. Dana ("Crustacea," Part II., pp. 1252-3; Atlas, Plate 88, figs. 1 and 2), that I am very confident that they are individuals of that species. I have not been able to find any detailed account of the Salpae in the Society's Library, but in the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, Vol. XI., p. 17, is a detailed description, with woodcuts, of Salpa Cabotti, by Alexr. Agassiz. This is found south of Cape Cod, and very closely resembles the one I caught, and the description and investigation into the connection of the chain forms are highly interesting. Includes illustrations.