Note on the Occurrence of Echinus esculentus above Low-tide Mark on the Cornish Coast

Author(s):  
Ethelwynn Trewavas

When collecting on the shores in the Plymouth area, while a member of the Easter Class at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Plymouth, in 1921, I was struck by the absence above low-water mark of Echinus esculentus, as contrasted with its abundance in this zone at Port Erin in the Isle of Man; for there, as Chadwick states, “it may be collected by hand on the beach, and on the ruined breakwater at low-water of spring tides.” There is no record of this species except below tide-marks in the “Plymouth Marine Invertebrate Fauna” list (Journ. Marine Biological Association, Vol. VII, 1904).In 1849 W. P. Cocks, in the Trans. Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society (“List of Echinodermata procured in Falmouth and Neighbourhood from 1843 to 1849”), recorded the occurrence of this species thus:—“Echinus sphœra.—Trawl refuse; common: young specimen found attached to stones, low-water mark.”Later (1887–8), in the same journal, G. F. Tregelles, in a paper on “Echinodermata of Mount's Bay,” makes the following statement of the species of the genus Echinus: “The commonest and largest is E. esculentus (Pennant) [E. sphœra Forbes], which literally swarms off this coast at all depths. It is brought in by trawlers; it is found in crab-pots, into which it climbs laboriously after bait; the seaweed gatherers obtain them in from one to two fathoms of water. The Mouse-hole fishermen call them ‘zarts,’ doubtless an old Cornish word.”

Author(s):  
Marie V. Lebour

Simnia patula (Pennant)=0vula is common feeding on Ahyoniwm digitatum and on Eunicella verrucosa, trawled in Plymouth waters. Mr. E. A. Todd records in the 1904 Plymouth Fauna List (Plymouth Marine Invertebrate Fauna, Journal of the Marine Biological Association, VII, 1904), which is quoted in the new fauna list (1931, Marine Biological Association), that “spawn probably belonging to this species has been found in April, June-July.” This spawn is also well known to other members of the staff of the Laboratory and it is often found with the Simnia itself. It is now quite certain that it is the spawn of this mollusc, for it has been deposited in a plunger-jar on the glass and on Alcyonium (Jan. 19/20, 1932), and hatched out Feb. 21/22, 1932; it has been hatched out in the Laboratory, the larvae distinguished in the plankton and reared until the crawling stage in a plunger-jar; and young stages which bridge the gulf from larva to adult have also been found. The adults will live for months in a plunger-jar feeding voraciously on Alcyonium. The life-history is described here for the first time. It is very interesting because it is quite unlike that of Trivia euro-pea recently described (Lebour, 1931b), although the two are placed in the same family. Trivia bites holes in compound ascidians and lays its eggs in vase-shaped capsules embedded up to the neck in the ascidian, and these hatch out into larvae having accessory shells rather like those of Lamellaria but with distinct differences. Simnia lays its eggs in a single layer of capsules, spreading over the Alcyonium for an inch or more in an irregular roundish mass (Text-figure 1).


Author(s):  
W. Bateson

The Council of the Marine Biological Association appointed me, in 1889, to make observations on the perceptions of fishes, and especially on those which constitute the modes by which they hunt for and recognise their food. It was suggested that this subject should be treated in as wide a manner as possible, and in accordance with this suggestion I have endeavoured to utilize any opportunities which presented themselves of getting an insight into the natural history of marine animals. In addition to this I have also made some experiments towards the practical solution of the bait question, both by making artificial baits, and by endeavouring to preserve materials which are already in use for bait.


Author(s):  
Walter Garstang

This paper is intended to furnish a complete list of all the species of Opisthobranchiate Mollusca found up to this time by the Marine Biological Association at Plymouth, together with various notes upon their morphology and natural history. The Nudibranchiate section of the group has, however, already formed the subject of a preceding report published in this Journal, so that species which have not since been taken are recorded here by their names only, a fuller account of them being given in the previous report. All the species there recorded are distinguished in this paper by asterisks (*) affixed to their names. I have had the advantage of several works upon the classification of the group which have recently appeared, notably Carus's excellent Prodromus Faunæ Mediterraneæ, vol. ii, part 1, 1889; Bergh's Die cladohepatischen Nudibranchien (Zoolog. Jahrbüch., v, 1890; for a copy of this admirable work I am indebted to the author); and Norman's Revision of British Mollusca (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., VI, vol. vi, No. 31, 1890, pp. 60—91). I must also mention Vayssière's Recherches Zoologiques sur les Mollusques Opistobranches du Golfe de Marseille—I. Tectibranches (Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat. Marseille, Zool., II, 1885, Mém. No. 3) as having been of great service; and I regret that up to the time of going to press the second part of M. Vayssière's work has not arrived at the Laboratory, and I have been unable to refer to it.


Author(s):  
R.F.G. Ormond

A meeting on Marine biodiversity: causes and consequences was held in York on 30 August – 2 September 1994, organized by the Marine Biological Association and the Scottish Association for Marine Science and supported by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, the Natural History Museum and the Marine Conservation Society. The following 16 papers were first presented at this meeting.


2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-170
Author(s):  
P. G. Moore

Three letters from the Sheina Marshall archive at the former University Marine Biological Station Millport (UMBSM) reveal the pivotal significance of Sheina Marshall's father, Dr John Nairn Marshall, behind the scheme planned by Glasgow University's Regius Professor of Zoology, John Graham Kerr. He proposed to build an alternative marine station facility on Cumbrae's adjacent island of Bute in the Firth of Clyde in the early years of the twentieth century to cater predominantly for marine researchers.


Author(s):  
Marie V. Lebour

Two species of Lima are known from Plymouth: Lima hians (Gmelin), the commonest species, inhabiting small patches of stones with muddy gravel at extreme low-tide mark on the north side of the Breakwater, where many individuals may be found together, and Lima loscombi Sowerby, found on the coarse grounds west of the Eddystone, Rame-Eddystone Grounds, Mewstone Grounds, Stoke Point Grounds and southwest of the Eddystone (see Marine Biological Association, Plymouth Marine Fauna, 1931). The latter is a much smaller species than the former, not so highly coloured, and much rarer. Although it is often difficult to obtain Lima hians, as it is only accessible at very low tides, it occurs in numbers in the locality cited.


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