Year: 1876

Professor Van Beneden, of the Uni
Versity of Louvain, France, has recently
written an interesting little work enti-
tied Animal Parasites and Messmates, P"
in which he has contrived to compress a
great deal of curious information regard.
ing a subject much more extended than
the reader not versed in modern prog
ress Of natural. history would suppose. He
divides the strange creatures OF which
he treats into three classes: first, mess
mates, or those who join others to OBJ
tain a living or a home or protection;
second mutualists, or animals which
live on each other without being either
parasites or messmates; and third, the
parasites, whose profession it is to live
at the expense OF their neighbors, and
whose only employment consists in tax
ing advantage of them, but prudently, so
as not to endanCer their lives


While it would be impossible here to
follow the writer in the numerous dis
tinctions which he draws among the
members of these different classes, it
will perhaps prove interesting to note n
few OF the most odd and novel peculiari-
ties of the creatures belonging to each
There is fish, he tells US, called the
holothuria, which is living boarding
house for the ferasfer, an eeElike ami
NAL. The latter is lodged in the digest
i've tube of his companion, and, with
out any regard for the hospitality which
he receives, seiZes upon his portion of all
that enters. The angler or beaudroie of
the Mediterranean often harbors, in the
bronchial sac, kind of eel, which is
abundantly able to take care of itself,
but prefers to live a life of idleness and
share its hosts spoils. The shark is ac.
companied by the pilot fish, which does
not, as is often reported, exist on the
leavings of his larger companion, but by
his own Industry, and doubtless finds
some advantage in plotting his neighbor.


Another remarkable fish, the remora,
literally moors itself to the body Of the
shark, thus converting the latter into
vehicle which carries him about without
exertion on his part. When he becomes
hungry, no lets 60 and hunts. for prey
wherever he may happen to be. This to-
nacity of the remora in attaching itself
is taken advantage of by the fishermen
of the Mozambique Channel, in order to
capture turtles and large fish. They
pass through the tail of the remora a
ring to which cord is attached, and
then send it in pursuit of the first pass.
er-by which they consider worthy to be
caught The fish holds Oh to its prey so
firmly that it only remains to haul the
victim and captor in by the line.


There is a crab, of the family of the
maidR, which conceals itself in the sub
stance of polypidom; it is common in
the Viii Islands, in company with gas
teropod mollusc, and both of them as
sumo the exact color of the polypidom
This is q new kind OF mimicry. Anoth.
er crab appropriates a sea anemone to
form a living cloak to hide it from view,
| in order that may spring out from its
ambush to attack prey. Remarkable
marine creatures are the birgi, a kind
OF crustaceans which grow very large and
conceal their abdomens no longer in a
/ she'll but in the crevices Of rock In
I the East Indies they remain on land, and
even climb trees. They have so much
strength in their pincers that it is relat-
/ ed that one, while stretched on the
/ branch of a tree, raised a goat by the
/ ears" A family of isopods are rather
I dangerous messmates, il would seem, for
/ they cut into the walls of their host 4
I stomach, and live like Sybarites on its
contents.


The most interesting fixed messmates
are the cirrhipedes, which cover the skins
of whales, which they never quit after
once choosing their abode. Each whale
lodges a peculiar species; SO that the
crustacean messmate is a true flag. which


indicates, in some respects, the national


ity. 1t would not be without interest


for voyagers who are naturalists to study


these living flags.


Among the mutualists imay be men


toned the ticks, one generic division o


which lives on the dog, another on thu


cat, and another on the OK Fishes har


Dor crustaceans instead of ticks, anC


these sometimes multiply so rapidly tina


they cover their post as though the.


took the place of scales. The cod give


lodging to one of very beautiful shape
.. which in turn affords resting place 10
a still smaller organism. In the mids
of the eggs of the lobster, there lives al


animal Of extreme agility, which our ~