220 BULLETIN 54, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



NEROCILA ACUMINATA Schicedte and Meinert. 



Xerocila acuminata SCHICEDTE and MEINERT, Naturhistorisk Tidsskrift (3), XIII, 

 1881-1883, pp. 48-50, pi. in, figs. 5-6. RICHARDSON, American Naturalist, 

 XXXIV, 1900, p. 220; Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XXIII, 1901, p. 527; Trans. 

 Conn. Acad. Sci., XI, 1902, p. 291. 



Localities. Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico; St. Anna, Mexico; 

 Louisiana; Pensacola and St. Marys River, Florida; Fort Macon, 

 North Carolina; Newpoint, Virginia; Biloxi, Mississippi; Bermudas; 

 Lake Harley, Florida; south Florida. 



Parasites of the saw-fish; Chs&todipterus faher (side of body); 

 Spheroides maculatus; Alutera schoepfii; Lachnolaimus maximum (on 

 fin). 



Body ovate, a little more than one and a half times longer than 

 wide, 13 mm. : 21 mm. 



Head, somewhat quadrate, as long as wide, 4 mm.: -i mm., with the 

 anterior margin almost straight, slightly rounded, and the posterior 

 a margin produced in three lobes, the 



middle one being much the larger. 

 Eyes absent. The first pair of antenna? 

 are composed of eight articles and ex- 

 tend to the post-lateral lobe of the head. 

 The second pair of antennae are com- 

 posed of nine articles and extend just a 

 little beyond the first pair of antennas. 

 The maxillipeds have a palp of two 

 articles. The palp of the mandibles is 

 composed of three articles. 



The first segment of the thorax is 

 longer than any of the three following 

 segments; the fifth, sixth, and seventh 

 segments are longer than any of the 

 three preceding segments, but gradu- 

 ally decrease in length, the fifth being the longest. The body is broad- 

 est at the fifth and sixth segments. The post-lateral angles of all the 

 segments are produced backward in long acute processes, increasing in 

 length from the first to the seventh segment. The epimera are dis- 

 tinctly separated from the segments, with the exception of the first. 

 They are long, narrow plates, becoming more acutely pointed at their 

 posterior extremities from the first to the seventh. The epimera of 

 the second segment extend beyond the post-lateral angles of the seg- 

 ment; those of the third segment extend to the post-lateral angles of 

 the segment; all the others reach the posterior margins of the seg- 

 ments, but do not extend to the extremity of the post-lateral angles. 



Fie. 222. NEROCILA ACUMINATA (AF- 

 TER SCHICEDTE AND MEIXEBT). a, 

 ADULT FEMALE. 6, LATEKAL VIEW. 

 (ENLARGED.) 



