190 A HISTORY OF RECENT CRUSTACEA 



ferred from the general agreement of the species with 

 others that are known to be fossorial. This agreement is 

 exhibited more especially in the tail-fan, but other features 

 favour the notion of such a habit. The flagella of the first 

 antennas, fringed with long fine hairs, may assist in keeping 

 open a breathing hole. The anterior outlet of the branchial 

 chamber is protected against intrusive particles by a joint 

 of the first maxillipeds so disposed as to serve for an 

 operculum. Of the very unequal first legs the limb on 

 the right side has the thumb and finger monstrously 

 developed into a pair of combs carrying about sixty 

 unequal teeth apiece, and, as Spence Bate observes, ' it 

 appears probable that when partially closed it has the 

 power of raking the neighbourhood to a considerable 

 distance, and so entrapping small animals and other 

 material from which the blind creature has the power of 

 selecting its food.' As this extremely elongate hand 

 could not convey the food to the niouth, the short second 

 and third pairs of legs are also conveniently chelate. The 

 fifth pair are the same, at least in the female, but in 

 these the minute chela buried in a thick brush of fur 

 probably has some function other than that of assisting its 

 mistress to feed. 



Calocdris, Bell, 1853, has but a single species, Calocaris 

 Macandrece, Bell, found in the waters of Ireland, Scotland, 

 and Norway. It is still comparatively rare, as might be 

 expected of an animal which burrows at depths of 80 and 

 150 fathoms. Its habits would seem to be tolerably 

 sluggish, since specimens are sometimes overgrown with 

 a small zoophyte, the polyzoon Triticella jiava, Dalyell, 

 which can scarcely serve any purpose of concealment. The 

 eyes are present but have lost their pigment, so that vision 

 is probably dim. The first pair of legs are unequal, but 

 not strikingly so. These and the next pair are chelate, 

 while the remaining three pairs are simple. Spence Bate 

 makes it a character of the family that the tail-fan has the 

 outer plates much larger than the inner, but, though this 

 is true of Thaumastocheles, it scarcely applies to Calocaris. 



