246 LEON J. COLE, 



As has beeil mentioned above the ovigerous legs in tlie female 

 of Discoarachne are even larger than in the male and the question 

 naturally arises, What can be their function in the female that they 

 should persist and be so well developed? Hoek^) says in regard to 

 this: "As the functions of the ovigerous legs are twofold, one beiiig 

 to bear the eggs, a function only accomplished by the male [an ex- 

 ception is given to this, a case of a female of Nymphon hrevicaudatum 

 MiERS, which had an egg-mass on its ovigerous leg], the other to 

 serve as an organ of feeling, also, in all probability, of seizing food, 

 and as the latter of these functions is almost ideutical with that of 

 the other cephalic appendages, they are wanting in the feraales only 

 of those genera which have also lost their other cephalic appendages." 

 If the ovigerous legs are used for feeling and for grasping food as 

 here supposed, it is hard to understand why they should be absent 

 in those forms that, having lost either one or both pairs of their other 

 cephalic appendages {Ppcnogonidae, Phoxichilidüdae), would seem to 

 need them most. Besides, it is not well kuown of what the food of 

 Pycnogonids consists, and references to this subject are rare in the 

 literature. Morgan-) observes as follows regarding the food: "No 

 solid extraneous matter was ever seeii in the tract of either larvre or 

 adults of Sea-Spiders, so that the food is probably obtained by sucking 

 the Juices of other animals .... and probably from the hydroids, 

 aiiiongst which they live." If the cephalic appendages function as 

 HoEK believes, we may reasonably expect to find some ditierence in 

 the feediug habits of those forms in which they are well developed 

 and those wanting all or part of them. B>ora observations which I 

 have myself made, and from coraparing the figures of others, it seems 

 possible that the ovigerous legs of the female may have another 

 function, to help in the transfer of the eggs to the male in those 

 cases in which they are formed into round balls. In Pycnogonum, 

 PhoxichiUdium, Anoplodactylus, and related genera, in which the ovi- 

 gerous legs are absent, the eggs are often, if not always, in irregulär 

 rounded masses {Anoplodactylus lentus)^ cake-like masses {Pycno- 

 gonum), or in loose balls. How the eggs are transferred in Anoplo- 

 dactylus lentus, where it is a very simple process, I have described 



1) HoEK, P. P. C, 1. c. p. 15. 



2) Morgan, T. H., A contribution to the embryology and phylo- 

 geny of the Pycnogonids, in: Stud. biol. Lab. Johns Hopkins Univ., 

 V. 5, No. 1, 1891, p. 38. 



