148 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



Munida sp. 



A single imperfect specimen of a Munida from Station 23, oflf Sombrero Island, West 

 Indies ; depth, 450 fathoms ; bottom, Pteropod ooze, is preserved in the collection. It 

 is apparently a young individual, and probably belongs to one of the numerous species 

 described by Professor Alphonse Milne-Edwards from the West Indies. The body is 

 smooth and glabrous, the striae being faintly granular ; the gastric area of the carapace 

 is armed in front with a transverse row of spinules, only two of which (placed behind 

 the supraorbitals) attain any considerable size ; the rostrum is almost half the length of 

 the carapace, and twice the length of the supraorbital spines, whUe the latter are some- 

 what flattened. The second, third, and fourth abdominal segments are armed with a pair 

 of submedian spines each, and the first of these segments bears in addition three lateral 

 spinules on each side. The eyes are of a light brown hue. The merus of the external 

 maxillipedes is elongated, and provided with two spinules on the inner margin, — one at 

 the distal end, the other near the proximal end. 



Genus Mimidopsis, Whiteaves. 



Munidopsis, Whiteaves, Amer. Journ. Soi., ser. 3, vol. vii. p. 212, 1874. 

 Galaflwdes, A. Milne-Edwards, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., voL viii. No. ], p. 5.3, 1880. 

 OropJiorhynchus, A. Milne-Edwards, BuU. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. viii. No. 1, p. 58, 1880. 



Eostrum spinulous, and usually more or less triangular, with its margins rarely 

 dentate or spinose. Carapace rugose, or spinose, and in most cases glabrous. Chelipedes 

 and ambulatory limbs of variable length, and frequently spinose, the dactyli of the latter 

 with their posterior margins often dentate. Eyes devoid of pigment, with the peduncle 

 frequently prolonged beyond the cornea in the form of a spine or spines. Antennal 

 peduncle usually stout. Eggs few in number and of large size. 



The members of this genus have been taken in almost all seas the deep water of 

 which has been explored by the di-edge, and they are found at depths varying from 

 about 100 to upwards of 2000 fathoms. The species difier widely among themselves in 

 the form of those parts which in other Crustacea afford generic characters ; and yet it 

 is impossible to effect a natural subdivision, or one which is not founded on a single 

 character to the exclusion of others. It is probable that the loss of sight is compensated 

 by a greater development of the tactile sense, and in some species this is evidenced by 

 the great length of the antennal flagella, which in all probability enable the animal to 

 grope its way about on the bottom. 



