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



true crlandular part and of a wider part, which acts probably as a receptaculum and opens 

 into the fine pore.' 



3. The glands in the fourth joint of the legs of the males. These I observed in the 

 follo^ving species : — Nymphon hamatuvi, Nymphon hrachyrhynchus, Ascorhynchus glaber, 

 Colossendeis lexjtorhyndius,.Colossendeis prohoscidea, Colossendeismegalonyx, Oorhynchus 

 aucklandm, Phoxichilidium insigne, and Pallene australiensis. Whether or not they 

 occur in the thighs of the males of all the species I dare not assert. I can only say that 

 1 did not find them in the thighs of the following species : — Nymphon robustum, 

 N. hrevicaudatum, N. longicoxa, N. grossipes, and Colossendeis gracilis. This may, 

 however, be the consequence of these glandular masses being present only during a short 

 period of the year — for example, only in the breeding season. 



These are the glands which were observed by Dohrn. According to him {loc. cit., 

 p. 36) they occur only in the male sex, and are found in the fourth joint of the legs, viz., 

 m those joints in which in the females the ovaries are most strongly developed. Dohrn, 

 moreover, tells us that these glands are extremely variable in their appearance ; while in 

 Ammothea they are furnished with a single duct only, in Phoxichilus there are fifteen 

 smaller openings. Dohrn supposes that the function of these glands is to secrete a viscous 

 tiuid, wherewith the males agglutinate the eggs which have been laid l^y the females, 

 and attach them to their ovigerous legs. 



As to the function of these glands, I was unable to make any observations from the 

 material preserved in spirits and brought home by H.M.S. Challenger. With regard to 

 their structure the following may be stated : — The glands are always composed of a 

 skeleton of connective tissue, the meshes of which are or are not filled with nucleated 

 cells, which doubtless are the true glandular cells. When these glands have the meshes 

 filled up with the nucleated cells (PL XVI. figs. 5 and 10), the 'skeleton of con- 

 nective tissue is not easily discerned ; while in those cases in which the meshes 

 are empty (PL XVL fig. 15) the structure of the connective tissue is easily observed. 

 In the form of the glandular cells small differences were also observed. In Ascorhynchus 

 glaber, they are fusiform and pointed at both extremities ; in Nymphon hamatum, 

 they are rounded, but in both cases distinct nuclei are present. A considerable 

 difference, moreover, is seen in the greater or less degree of concentration which 

 the glandular masses had undergone. In Nymphon hamatum and in Ascorhynchus 

 glaber the gland in the fourth joint (which, however, in the latter species is also 

 present in the fifth joint of the leg) forms only a single mass, which runs through 

 the whole joint and opens at the one side in a row of pores, each of which is placed at 

 the tip of a chimney-lilce process. As seen in fig. G, the gland in Nymp>hon hamatum 

 almost extends on the one side of the leg, between the intestinal cfficum and the 



' These glands are also obseiTed by Dolini ; he calls tbem " eiu zvveites uoch grdsseres Excretions- (oder Dnisen \-) 

 Organ (Ibid.). 



