CETOCHILUS. 



233 



Family :i CETOCHILIDJE* 



PONTIENS, J/. Edwards, Hist. Nat. Crust., iii, '112. 

 PONTIAD/E, Baird, Trans. Berw. Nat. Club, ii, 155. 



Character. Plead distinguishable from body, but firmly 

 articulated with the first ring of thorax. Foot-jaws three 

 pairs, strongly developed. Legs five pairs. Eyes two 

 in number. Right antennae alone, in male, furnished 

 with the swollen hinge-joint. 



The individuals hitherto discovered belonging to this 

 family are not numerous. The only British genus yet 

 noticed is the enus Cetochilus. 





Genus CETOCHILUS. f 



Roussel de Vauzeme, Ann. des Sc. Nat., 2d series, i, 333. 

 J/. Edwards, Hist. Nat. Crust., iii, 421. 

 Goodsir, Ediri. New Phil. Jouru., xxxv, 339. 

 , Trans. Berw. Nat. Club, ii, 150. 



Character. Head furnished with two small, styliform 

 prolongations. Anteunules of two branches, of nearly 

 equal size. Foot-jaws not branched. Thorax of six, 

 abdomen of four segments. Last pair of feet of the same 

 formation as the others. 



This genus was established by Roussel de Vauzeme, 

 in the ' Ann. des Sc. Nat.,' second series, i, 1834 ; and he 

 there gives a very interesting account of its use, as con- 

 stituting, in a great measure, the food of the whale. 

 Vauzeme was attached to a vessel employed in the whale 

 fishery in the Southern Ocean ; and for four months the 

 crew were engaged in the neighbourhood of the island of 



* The term Pontia having been preoccupied by a genus of Lepidoptera, 

 it may become necessary to alter the name of M. Edwards's genus of this 

 family. Mr. Dana, indeed, has done so, changing it to Pontella. I have 

 therefore used the term Cetochilid/e as not liable to any objection, and the 

 more especially as the genus Cetochilus is the only one of the family found 

 in Britain as yet. 



f From (fj/roc, a whale ; and xiXoc, food. 



