19S 



HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Sept. 1, 1870. 



We have not been able to discover whether this 

 thread-like web be excreted by the mouth, or whether 

 or not there be an especial organ for its produc- 

 tion." 



The fact that animals, more or less like the prawns 

 and shrimps hawked about from door to door, build 

 nests like birds in the branches of the trees of the 

 ocean forests, is so curious that, for the sake, not 

 only of our young readers,' but for the benefit of 

 some of the big children also, we venture to repro- 

 duce (fig. 182) one of the charming vignettes of the 

 noble work on the sessile-eyed Crustacea by Bate & 

 Westwood. 



Fig. 182. Group of nests of Potlocerus capillutus, after 

 Bate and Westwood. 



Here is another crustacean, a stalk-eyed Stomo- 

 pod of the family Mysidts ; and by the remarkable 

 "flippets" of his tail, we recognize him at a glance 

 as Mysis Chameeleon. The colours of this genus are 

 very variable ; probably they are affected by the pre- 

 vailing colours about the habitat of the individuals; 

 this one is a of greenish grey, and each plate of his 

 armour bears a large stellate mark of a reddish 

 hue. We need not enler upon his generic charac- 

 teristics, they are to be found in "Bell's Crus- 

 tacea." 



" ]S T o distinct branchial apparatus has as yet been 

 observed in this remarkable genus, and, as is ob- 

 served by Dr. Milne-Edwards, the only appendage 

 which appears to be so modified in structure as to 

 become more adapted than the rest of the body to 

 serve the purposes of a respiratory organ, is the lash 

 of the first pair of pedipalps, which in other respects 

 are similar to those found in numerous species 

 possessed of branchiae; it is, however, not at all 

 improbable that this may be the true organ of 

 respiration." There is another very striking pecu- 

 liarity of this genus, which, if it has been observed, 

 has not been alluded to in any of the works we have 

 seen ; viz., the auditory sacs, or vesicles containing 



crystalline otoconia, situated near the roots of the 

 lateral laminae of the tail, as shown in fig._ 183, 



Fig. 1S3. Mysis Chameleon, x 3. 



Fig. 183. Tail of Mysis, with otoconia, x 10. 



which has been engraved from a slide in our pos- 

 session, on which the tail of a specimen taken in the 

 net, on the very cruising-ground about which we are 

 now gossiping, is preserved. 



Fig. 184. Stenosoma Uncart. Nat. size. 



This transposition of a sense, the idea of listening 

 with the tail, seems strange ; but here is a stranger 

 creature that breathes with his tail. ThisJ L is an 



