378 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



of operculum and the anterior pairs are ciliated in the young of all three 

 families, but this ciliation, as well as that on the uropods, may be lost 

 in the sedentary adults of the Cymothoidcv. In all our species the dorsal 

 surface is smooth throughout, or minutely punctate under a lens, but 

 destitute of distinct roughness, tuberculation or sculpture, except that 

 the telson may be faintly grooved or sculptured, and in some foreign 

 species more distinctly so. 



Cirolana Leacli. 

 Cirolana Leach, Diet, des Sci. nat., tome xii, p. 347, 1818. 



Thoracic segments subequal; eyes small, well separated; mandibles 

 armed with strong acute teeth ; dactyli straight, or but slightly curved ; 

 pleon of six distinct segments ; basal segment of uropods with the inner 

 angle produced. 



Two closely allied species are found on this coast, which I formerly 

 referred to the genus Conilera Leach. Further consideration induces 

 me to refer them rather to the present genus, although they have some 

 features which point toward Conilera, and are perhaps between that 

 genus and the typical forms of Cirolana. From Conilera, as described 

 by Bate and Westwood, our species differ principally in the more 

 robust four posterior pairs of legs, in the produced angle of the basal 

 segment of the uropods, and in the structure of the first pair of pleopods, 

 which are not operculiform either in size or texture. Of these two 

 species one is abundant and is described at length. The description 

 will, however, apply almost equally well to the other except in the few 

 points mentioned in the appropriate place. The characters given, 

 though slight, appear to be constant, and I have therefore retained the 

 two specific names. 



This genus differs from JEV/ in the structure of the legs, and was placed 

 by Professor Dana in a separate subfamily. In Cirolana the first three 

 pairs of legs are strong, and armed with minute spine-like claws at the 

 tip of the nearly straight dactyli ; the propodi in these legs are robust, 

 spiny, and somewhat curved, and some of the preceding segments are 

 also armed with spines. These legs thus form powerful organs for seiz- 

 ing living prey, and are not, as in the Cymothoidw, and, in a less degree, 

 in JEga, merely fitted by their curved dactyli to retain the hold of the 

 animal upon its host in a parasitic existence. The last four pairs of 

 legs are well ciliated and capable of use either for walking or swim- 

 ming, and these animals are thus fitted for their active and predaceous 

 life. 



Cirolana concharum Harger (Stirnpson). 



JEga concharum Stimpson, Mar. Inv. G. Manan, p. 42, 1853. 



Liitken, Vidensk. Meddel. , 1859, p. 77, 1860. 

 Conilera concharum Harger, This Report, part i, p. 572 (278), 1874. 



Verrill, This Report, part i, p. 459 (165), 1874. 

 Cirolana concharum Harger, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1879, vol. ii, p. 161, 1879. 



