On Discoaniohno brevipes Hock, :i Pvcnogonid l'rom South Airica. 245 



spines are totally wanting." Although Hoek gives a good figure of 

 tlie last 5 joints of the ovigerous leg of the feniale, I have introducecl 

 one here (Fig. 3) to facilitate comparison with the corresponding part 

 in the male (Fig. 4). To and including the 7. Joint the description 

 for the female applies equally well to the male, exeept that in the 

 male what few short spines there are mostly point backwards, whereas 

 in the female they stick neaiiy straight out, pointing slightly ahead 

 if anything; and the 7. Joint has at its distal extremity a large number 

 of long, stout, and raostly recurved spines (Fig. 4, 7). The 8. Joint 

 instead of being continuous with the 7., comes oft" from the side of it 

 at an angle. The 9. and 10. follow in line with the 8., and all three 

 are much smaller than the corresponding joints in the female. The 

 8., like the 7., is armed at its distal end with strong spines which, 

 however, are not recurved, and there are also a few on the 9. The 

 10. Joint is very short and at its apex has two short spines which are 

 so arranged that they somewhat reserable chelse. Plainly all these 

 dififerences are secondary adaptations in the male to hold the egg- 

 masses upon the legs, and 1 am not aware that just such a device 

 has been found elsewhere, though in some Pycnogonids {Pallene e. g.) 

 the same result is obtained by a knob on the distal end of the 5. Joint, 

 which usually bears backwardly projecting spines. This also occurs 

 only in the male. 



Upon the ovigerous legs of one of the males were several closely 

 crowded masses of eggs as shown in Fig. 2. Eight of these more or 

 less rounded masses could be counted, the eggs composing which were 

 in the later cleavage stages; but when these were removed the re- 

 mains of two other masses were found, one on the basal portion of 

 each of the ovigerous legs. These latter were shapeless masses con- 

 sisting largely of the matrix or cement which holds the eggs together, 

 and in which a few unhatched eggs were still embedded. But the 

 larger number of the eggs were hatched and the small "pantapod- 

 larvae" (Fig. 5) were hanging to the remains of the mass by the 

 strong chelee of their first pair of appendages (Fig. 5). That there 

 were two sets of eggs in so widely different stages of development 

 would seem to show conclusively that the male had taken eggs from 

 a second female while still carrying eggs he had received from an- 

 other. The 8 masses of eggs in the same stage of development sug- 

 gests that they may correspond to the 8 genital openings of the 

 female, those from each pore remaining in a separate ball. The way 

 in which these are attached to the ovigerous leg is shown in Fig. 6, 

 "which represents one of the masses. 



