70 CRUSTACEA. 



The antennae always project; the laterals are usually very long and 

 resemble very fine setae ; the intermediaries of a great number ter- 

 minate in three threads. The eyes are closely approximated. The 

 external foot-jaws, more elongated and narrow than usual, resemble 

 palpi or antennae. The mandibles of most of them are compressed 

 and arcuated at the extremity. One of the first pairs of feet is fre- 

 quently flexed upon itself. The segments of the tail are dilated or 

 widened laterally. The external leaflet of its terminal fin is always 

 divided in two by a suture, a character observed nowhere else ex- 

 cept in the last Crustacea of the preceding section; the azygous por- 

 tion of the middle, or the seventh and last segment is elongated, 

 narrowed near the extremity and provided above with ranges of 

 small spines. The false feet, of which there are five pairs, are elon- 

 gated and usually foliaceous. 



Immense numbers of these Crustacea are consumed in all parts of 

 the world. Some species are even salted in order to preserve 

 them. 



In some of them, the three first pairs of feet form a didactyle 

 claw, the length of which progressively augments, so that the third 

 pair is the longest. Such are the 



Pex^us, Fab., 



Where there is no annular division in any of the joints of the 

 feet. 



Their mandibular palpi are turned up and foliaceous. A little 

 elliptical appendage may be seen at the base of the feet, a character 

 which seems to approximate them to Pasiphaea, the last genus of 

 this section, and to those of the following one. 



Some, all indigenous to Europe, on account of the shortness of the 

 two threads of their intermediate antennae, form a first division. It 

 contains the following species. 



P. sulcatus; Palasmon sulcatus, Oliv., Encyclop.; Caramote, 

 Rond., Hist. Nat. des Poiss., liv. xviii, chap. 7. Nine inches 

 long; on the middle of the thorax a longitudinal carina bifurcated 

 at base, terminated by a projecting rostrum, compressed, with 

 eleven teeth in its upper edge and one in the lower; a longitu- 

 dinal sulcus along each side of the carina. 



This species is very common in the Mediterranean and the 

 object of considerable commerce. It is salted and shipped to 

 the Levant. The P. trisulcatus, Leach, Malac. Brit. XLII, 

 which inhabits the coast of England, is perhaps a mere local 

 variety of the sulcatus. Its thorax is trisulcate and the ros- 

 trum bidentate beneath. In the P. d'Orbigny, Lat, Nouv. Diet. 

 d'Hist. Nat. , Ed. II, article Pence, the carina is not sulcated. 



