V. 



A Passage-at-Arms over the Amphipoda. 1 



A FEW crustaceans have a gastronomic, and therefore a commer- 

 cial, value. These are welcome to the eye, because they are 

 familiar to the palate. Their distribution, both horizontal and 

 bathymetric, may engage the thoughts of the purveyor, but the only 

 part of their " range " which appeals to the consumer is that which 

 extends from the market-place to the dining-room. There is little desire 

 evinced for any further information about them, or for any intimate 

 acquaintance with the rest of the class. A cheerful ignorance is not 

 uncommonly cherished in regard to almost everything that concerns 

 crustaceans, as little being known of their size, structure, habits, 

 numbers, and uses, as of the extraordinary variation prevailing within 

 the limits of the class, and of the characters by which the strange 

 diversities are for the most part wonderfully linked together. Even 

 in scientific circles carcinology is often regarded with only a languid 

 interest, a sort of half-discontented surprise that any persons should 

 be found willing to immerse themselves in so uninviting a subject. 



With affairs in this posture, it must be matter for astonishment 

 that at this very time two large and costly works should be published, 

 not on crustaceans in general, but on a single subdivision of the class, 

 a subdivision which is more or less coordinate with about a score of 

 others. They treat not of crabs, nor of lobsters, nor yet of prawns 

 and shrimps, nor even of wood-lice or barnacles. They treat of 

 animals which in a general way resemble shrimps more than wood- 

 lice, but which, nevertheless, in certain respects, are nearer to wood- 

 lice than to shrimps. They treat, in short, of the Amphipoda, a part 

 of the animal world which people in general have never heard of, and 

 of which they will usually be disposed to confess that they never wish 

 to hear. Yet the Amphipoda are extremely numerous in genera, in 



1 The present article is principally concerned with the " Gammarini del 

 Golfo di Napoli. Monografia di Antonio Delia Valle. Con un Atlante di 61 

 Tavole in Litografia. Herausgegeben von den Zoologischen Station zu Neapel. 

 Berlin: Verlag von R. Friedlander & Sohn, 1893. Ladenpreis 150 Mark." 4to 

 volume of text, pp. xi., 948. Volume of plates, sixty-one double plates, with 52 

 pages of explanation. Quinquennial subscribers to the series of monographs, in 

 the " Fauna und Flora des Golfes von Neapel und der angrenzenden Meeres- 

 Abschnitte, herausgegeben von der Zoologische Station zu Neapel," obtain them at 

 half the published price. 



