REPOET ON THE PYCNOGONIDA. 143 



the male as well as to the female sex. They are comparatively large, often long ovate 

 cells with a thin wall, the contents consisting of large granules and a longitudinal slightly 

 curved nucleus. 



When colouring the preparations with picrocarmine these forms assume a yellow colour, 

 the nucleus becoming beautifully red. They seem to be distributed through the body very 

 ii-regularly and seem to penetrate all the cavities accessible to the blood. In Nymphon 

 brevicaiidatum I even observed them in the space before occupied by the eggs, and in 

 which still an unripe egg was to be seen. Both in this species and in Nymphon longicoxa 

 most of these curious forms are very regularly placed against the wall of the leg, where 

 they often form two or even more distinct layers. Their size varies between 0"066 and 

 O'OSl mm. With regard to their nature my opinion is not at all a settled one ; but I 

 am strongly inclined to believe them to be the eggs of some parasitic animal. But what 

 kind of animal their parent in that case will prove to be I am unable to say. 



The other kind of bodies must be regarded, I believe, as ectoparasites of Colossendeis 

 leptorhynchus. Of the ten specimens of this species in the Challenger collection there are 

 three which are sprinkled over with these. The one is a male, the two others are female. 



They are rounded, sac- forming bodies, often with a crumpled surface placed at the end 

 of a short stalk, the end of the stalk is in connection with the integument of the Pycno- 

 gonid. Their wall is chitinous, and under this outer wall there is a much thinner inner 

 one ; in the stalk this inner wall is close to the outer one, but in the globular part there 

 is a large open space between the outer and the much smaller inner sac. In this space 

 pressed against the outer sac numerous eggs are found, the size of which is 0"088 mm., 

 they have a very thin wall and are furnished with a yelk of large rounded elements, 

 coloured yellow by picrocarmine. A small nucleus as a red coloured spot, however, is 

 always present. 



Whether these are really eggs is the first question to be answered, and I think there 

 can be no doubt in respect to this. Moreover, to judge from their structui'e and that 

 of the capsules, they are eggs that are laid after having been fecundated. There is 

 only one consideration, I believe, that may be set against this suggestion, and this is, 

 that aU these eggs are in the same state of development ; not only those of the same 

 capsule, but of aU the capsules I investigated. It must be borne in mind, however, that 

 these were brought up by the same haul of the trawl, and probably lived in the neigh- 

 bourhood of one another ; consequently I think this objection is of no importance. 



The second question is whether they are the eggs of that Pycnogonid on the legs of 

 which they are found, or of another specimen of the same species, or of any other animal. 

 Of course it is possible that the eggs are Colossendeis eggs ; however, I do not think 

 this very probable. In the first place, because males and females both are studded with 

 these capsules, and in the second place, because these capsules are totally diiierent froni 

 the egg-masses commonly found on the ovigerous legs of the Pycnogonids. In favour of 



