JOURNAL OF THE PROCEEDINGS 



LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



On the Importance of an Examination of the Structure of the 

 Integument of Crustacea in the determination of doubtful 

 Species. — Application to the genus Galathea, with the De- 

 scription of a New Species of that G-enus. By Spence Bate, 

 Esq., E.L.S. 



[Read January 21, 1858.] 



Or the various genera of Decapod Crustacea none are more inter- 

 esting, or more difficult of description, than those which constitute 

 the family G-alatheadse. 



The interest attaching to these forms arises from the interme- 

 diate position which they occupy in the natural arrangement of 

 the class, their structure placing them between the Macrura and 

 Brachyura ; in accordance with which we find that, whilst Pro- 

 fessor M.-Edwards classes them among the Macrura, Professor 

 Bell, in his work on the British Crustacea, places them (more 

 correctly, as we think) in the intermediate group of Anomura. 



This opinion is fully borne out both in the development of the 

 animals and in their structure in the adult state. 



The early form of the larva bears, anteriorly, a resemblance to 

 the Brachyural type, whilst the caudal appendages assimilate to 

 those of the Macrura. The same conditions obtain in the young 

 of Anomura. At the time of birth, the larva, like that of the 

 Brachyura, has only the two gnathopoda developed, whilst the 



LTNN. PROO. ZOOLOGY. 1 



