TALITRUS. 13 



A MPHIP DA . ORCHESTIID.E. 



> ILTATOEIA. 



Genus TALITRUS, LATREILLE. 



Generic character. Superior antennae short and rudimentary. 

 Inferior antennae with the basal joints fused into the facial 

 \vall of the cephalon. Mandibular palpi obsolete. Maxillipedes 

 not unguiculate, First pair of gnathopoda simple ; second pair 

 small and feeble. Coxae of third pair of pereiopoda as deep as 

 the coxae of the second, and divided into two equal lobes. Telson 

 rudimentary.* 



THE eyes are near the top of the head. The superior 

 antennae are very short, not reaching to the extremity of 

 the second free joint of the inferior. Inferior antennae 

 with the two basal joints absorbed into the frontal wall 

 of the head. Fingers of the foot-jaws not unguiculate. 

 First pair of legs not having a subchelate hand in either 

 sex : second pair of legs smaller than the first pair, and 

 imperfectly subchelate in both sexes. Coxae of the fifth 

 pair of legs subequally bilobed, and nearly as deep as the 

 coxae of the preceding pair. Middle scale of the tail 

 rudimentary or single. 



The genus Talitrus was first proposed by Latreille in 

 his "Precis" (1796), under the name of Gammarus, for 

 the reception of the Amphipoda with short upper an- 

 tennae ; the remainder, with longer upper antennae, being 

 arranged in his genus Carcinus. The name Talitrus itself 



* The structural terms employed in the short generic and specific characters 

 of the Amphipoda are those proposed by Mr. Spence Bate in his " Report on 

 the British Edriophthalma," published in the Reports of the British Asso- 

 ciation for 1855. In the text the ordinary English names of the various 

 parts are adopted, as given in the Table of External Organs in page 3. 



