PODOCERUS CAPILLATUS. 44o 



ever, having been taken from one in a more perfect 

 condition, will compensate for the circumstance. It may 

 be readily detected by the plumose antennae (which are so 

 thickly furnished with hair, each hair being so thickly 

 furred with fine cilia that the antennae resemble a brush 

 in appearance rather than the normal organs supporting 

 hairs) and the second pair of hands, which are ovate, 

 with the palm deeply excavated on the infero-anterior 

 margin, the excavation being defined at its posterior 

 limits by an obtuse but prominent tooth, as shown in the 

 outline figure, marked i. 



This species is beautifully variegated and builds its 

 nests in a very bird-like manner in submarine forests; 

 the nest consists chiefly of fine thread-like material, 

 woven and interlaced, being established firmly in the 

 branches of Zoophytes; some small extraneous fragments 

 are often bound in with it, but these appear more the 

 result of accident than of intention, as is the case with 

 Amphithoe. The form of the nest is somewhat oval, 

 the entrance being invariably at the top. These nests 

 are evidently used as a place of refuge and security, 

 and in which the parent protects and keeps her brood of 

 young until they are old enough to be independent of 

 the mother's care. 



Our vignette is taken from a group of these nests one 

 of which upon being opened was found to be occupied by 

 a parent animal and a swarm of young, evidently of two 

 ages, therefore two broods,* demonstrating, w r e think, 



* We have observed in Atylus carinatus from the Arctic Seas, that the 

 young, while yet nurtured in the incubatory pouch, attain progressive stages 

 of development. At first the head is without a rostrum, and the body and 

 tail without dorsal teeth ; these are afterwards gradually developed, and the 

 flagella are added to the antenme articulus by articulus. Figures of this 

 interesting development are given in the Catalogue of Amphipoda for the 

 British Museum. 



