234 PEOCEEDIXGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUS-EUM. 



it in 1839. It was more fully described and figured by AUman, in 1847, 

 from specimeus found in the piles of the jetty in tlie harbor of Kingstown, 

 near Dublin, Ireland. It has since been noticed at various points on the 

 coast of Europe from Southern Norway to the Adriatic, and attention 

 has often been called to its ravages. 



There is ai^parently but one sjiecies of the genus known. The (7. pon- 

 tica, described by Czerniavski, in 18G8, judging from the figures and the 

 Latin part of the description, is not distinct. The figure which he gives 

 of one of the abdominal swimming legs (pleopods) shows only one multi- 

 articulate ramus, which is an evident inaccuracy in the drawing, and 

 some other slight difi'erences shown in the figures are apparently due to 

 a similar cause. It is perhaps well to mention, in connection Mith this 

 reference to Czerniavski's paper, a very remarkable paper published the 

 same year by Eugene Hesse, in which this well-known European species 

 is redescribed and extensively figured, from specimens taken on the 

 coast of France, as a new species of Lhnnoria ! The geuus Chelurauu- 

 questionably belongs to the Amphipo<la, and has been placed in that 

 order and near CorojjMmn hy all carcinologists who have written upon 

 the subject. It has, in fact, no structural features which ally it to the 

 Isopoda, as distinguished from the Amphipoda, aud it has no external 

 resemblance to Limnoria, with which it need not be confounded by the 

 most superficial observer. 



The Chehira is readily distinguished from all the known genera of 

 crustaceans by the structure of the three pairs of caudal stylets (uro- 

 potls). The first (antepenultimate) pair of these appendages are slender 

 and tipped with two small and nearly ecpial rami ; the second have the 

 dorsal edge of the basal portion expanded into a thin, broad, oval plate 

 projecting beyond the two small rami Avhich are attached in an emargina- 

 tion of the lower margin ; the last pair have very stout but short bases, 

 to each of which is articulated a single very long and strong ramus, 

 which, in fully grown males, is nearly asloug as the body of the animal, 

 but much shorter in females and young. The length of fully grown 

 male, from the front of the head to the ultimate pair of caudal stxiets, 

 is about a quarter of an inch (G™'"); that of the female somewhat less. 



According to notes, made upon the specimeus taken at Wood's HoU 

 in 1875, the color of Chehira is very different from that of Limnoria, 

 being semitranslucent, thickly spotted and mottled above with pink, 

 somewhat as in UncioJa irrorata, but wanting the opaque white of that 

 species. 



The following synonymy gives the bibliographical history of the 

 species : 



Cbelura terebrans Philippi. 



Chchtru icrchraiis Philippi, ArcMv fiir NaturgescliicMc, v, 1839, p. 120, pi. T'. 

 lig. 5; Auiials Nat. Hist., iv, p. 94, pi. 3, fig. 5, 1839.— Allman, Annals and 

 Magazine Nat. Hist., xix, p. 361, pis. 13, 14, 1847 (see fnrther nndcr C. 

 destructor).— White, Catalogue British Crust., p. 56, 1850; Popular History 

 British Crust., p. 202, pi. 11, fig. 2, 1857.— Gosse, Marine Zoology, i, p. 



