234 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MU.ST^UM. 



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

 from specimens found in tbe piles of tbe jetty in tbe harbor of Kingstown, 

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

 coast of Euroi)e from Southern ]^ or way to the Adriatic, and nttention 

 has often been called to its ravages. 



There is apparently but one species of the genus known. The C. pon- 

 tica, described by Czerniavski, in 1868, judging from the figures and the 

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

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

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

 some other slight differences shown in the figures are apparently due to 

 a similar cause. It is perhaps well to mention, in connection with 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 spe(;imens taken on the 

 coast of France, as a new species of Limnoria ! The genus (Jhelura mi- 

 questionably belongs to the Amphipoda, and has been placed in that 

 order and near Corophium by all carcinologists who have written upon 

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

 Isoi)oda, as distinguished from the Amphipoda, and it has no external 

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

 most superficial observer. 



The Chelura is readily distinguished from all the known genera of 

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

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

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

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

 projecting beyond the two small rami which 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 as long as the body of the animal, 

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

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

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



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

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

 being semitranslucent, thickly spotted and mottled above with pink, 

 somewhat as in Uneiola irrorata, but wanting the ojiaque white of that 

 species. 



The following synonymy gives the bibliographical historj^ of the 

 species : 



Chelura terebrans Philippi. 



Chrlura ierehrans Philippi, ArcMv fUr Naturgescliichte, v, 1839, p. 120, pi. 3, 

 fig. 5; Annals Nat. Hist., iv, p. 94, pi. 3, fig. ^^, 1839. — Allman, Aunalsand 

 Magazine Nat. Hist., xix, p. 361, pis. 13, 14, 1847 (see further under C. 

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

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



