ORCHESTIA LITTOREA. 29 



Sand-hopper. It is of a green colour, and hides beneath 

 stones and vegetable refuse on the shore. The head is 

 smaller than in Talitrus, and the inferior antennae have 

 the flagellum rather longer. The female bears a closer 

 resemblance to Talitrus than the male. The second pair 

 of legs are feeble, and very much like that of Talitrus, 

 from which it can only be distinguished by the form of 

 the hand of the first pair. 



Orchestia littorea has generally been recorded as asso- 

 ciated with Talitrus locusta, but our experience induces 

 us to attribute the former to rocky, and the latter to 

 sandy, shores. Probably, when there is an approxima- 

 tion in the character of the two kinds of coasts, the 

 species composing the genera may be found to mingle. 

 Montagu on the Devonshire coast, the Rev. George 

 Gordon in the Moray Frith, and Professor Kinahan, at 

 Kilkenny, report the two genera as being found together. 

 But in the long sandy beach in Swansea Bay we never 

 took an Orchestia, though they are to be found round 

 the Mumble Head. Nor have they been taken in Whit- 

 sand Bay, near Plymouth, nor along the sandy beach 

 round Exmouth, in all which places Talitri abound.* 

 It has also been taken by the late W. Thompson in the 



* \Ve are indebted to Professor Bell, President of the Linncean Society, 

 for the following note on the present species: "Walking along the shore 

 at Bognor, on a stormy day and at high tide, I saw them crawling in great 

 numbers up the sides of the wooden 'groins' (a sort of breakwater so 

 called) to which situation they appeared to be driven to avoid the violence 

 of the waves beneath. I found them to consist of what I believe to be the 

 two sizes of one species, many possessing the strong, prehensile hand on the 

 second pair of limbs, and the broad, dilated articulations on the seventh pair 

 belonging to this species, and others without these peculiarities. On the 

 latter alone, and very commonly on these, I found eggs ; they were, in fact, 

 all females, and the others, doubtless, all males ; and as they were found 

 promiscuously together, and none of any other form, I could not but come to 

 the conclusion above mentioned, especially as they agree in all other cha- 

 racters." 



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