lowed with ease. Minute as it was, measuring less 

 than a hundredth of an inch in diameter, it was 

 singled out from the others at the start because 

 of its slightly larger size. Seen under the micro- 

 scope, the egg-membrane was so opaque that it ob- 

 scured the details within; but two great black 

 blotches were visible near the surface, indicating 

 the position of the growing embryo's eyes. Two 

 days after this transference, which is to say twelve 

 days after being laid, the eggs hatched. It was 

 during the night when the liberation actually oc- 

 curred; and Little Jim, now easily the largest of 

 the larval brood, was found swimming lustily 

 around the dish on the following morning . . . 

 Also, the great egg mass which the mother had 

 been carrying on her swimmerets, tucked tight 

 under her shielding abdominal flap, was now no 

 more. A cloudy swarm of microscopic moving 

 forms on that side of her tank which was nearest 

 to the light, gave witness to why her burden had 

 disappeared. 



Certainly no one unfamiliar with these larval 

 offspring would ever recognize in Little Jim a re- 

 lation of the adult spider-crab. In general its body 

 was long and cylindrical; it measured about one 



1255] 



