DECAPOD A. 203 



Their body is arcuated, almost gibbous, and of a less solid con- 

 sistence than that of the preceding Crustacea. The front is always 

 drawn out into a point, and most frequently HO as to resemble a ros- 



trum or pointed lamina comprev vd and <lrntated along the edges. 

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

 ,1,1.- very tine setjp; the intermediaries of a great number ter- 

 minite in three threads. The . elosely approximated. The 



rnalfoot-j i eh-n^ated and narrow than us ual, resemble 



palpi or anemia-. Tin- nundiblrs of most of them are compressed 

 and aivuat.-d at tin- extremity. One of the first pairs of feet is fre- 

 .juently llexed upon itself. The segments of the tail are dilated or 

 widened laterally. Tin- external leaflet of its terminal tin is always 

 divided in two ly a ut me, a character observed nowhere else ex- 

 i-ept in tin 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 .Npines. The false- feet, of which there are five pairs, are elon- 

 and usually foliar- 



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 



Fab., 



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



Their mandihuUir palpi, are turned up aiid 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 



ii. anil to those of the following one. 



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

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

 the following species. 



P.sulcatus; Palcemon tn/cn'm, Oliv., Encyclop. ; Caramote, 

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

 long ; on the middle of the thorax a longitudinal carina bifur- 

 >. terminated by a projecting rostrum, compressed, 

 witli eleven t"eth in it* upper edge and one in the lower; a lon- 

 gitudinal sulcus along each side of the carina. 



ry common in the Mediterranean and the 



obj- risiderable eommeree. It is salted and shipped to 



the Levant. The /'. /r/Wo//v, Leach, Malac. Brit. XLII, 



which inhabits the coast of Kn gland, is jwrliaps a mere local 



''i/Mf. Its thorax is trisulcate and the rostrum 



hidentate beneath. In the P. d'Orbiyny, Lat., Nouv. Diet. 



l-id. II, article Pence, the carina is not sulcated. 



The intermediate antennae of others arc terminated by long 

 threads; they constitut -mid division, to which we refer. 



