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



this opinion may be advanced that — at any rate as far as I know — hitherto no specimen 

 of one of the known species of Colossendeis has been caught with egg-masses on its 

 ovicerous legs. Considering that they are not the eggs of the Colossendeis itself, it 

 becomes almost impossible to form an opinion as to the animal they belong to. Among 

 the gastropodous molluscs numerous forms are known, which construct egg-capsules, and 

 attach them to foreign bodies. Perhaps the present capsules belong to an animal of that 

 group. That the long legs of our animals may easily be mistaken by other animals for 

 dead bodies is shown, I believe, by the fact that numerous other animals, which cannot be 

 considered as parasites, and which, as a rule, are found on stones, shells of molluscs, 

 carapaces of crabs, &c., fix themselves on these legs. So a small sponge and a poly- 

 zoon are on Nymphon hrachyrhynchus, a stalk-like process most probably of a tubularian 

 polyp is found on the leg of a Colossendeis ; a species of Scal2')ellum is extremely numerous 

 on the legs of Nymphon rohustum, Bell. Of the numerous specimens of this species col- 

 lected in Barents Sea, which I have investigated, there is not a single one with these 

 ectoparasites. But on the other hand, they are very common on the hundreds of speci- 

 mens of this species which were obtained by the " Knight-Errant." Professor G. 0. Sars 

 enumerates in his two latest papers on the Crustaceans of the Norwegian Expeditions 

 numerous species of Scalpellum, found at higher northern latitudes, but he does not 

 mention that they are found on the legs of the most common Pycnogonid of the North 

 Atlantic and North Polar Sea. Moreover, a preliminary comparison of this species of 

 Scal2xlluni shows differences with those described. I therefore believe it to be a new 

 one, and wish to name it Scalpellum nym2Jhocola. 



