182 ANCEID#. 
some accident, have lost the mandibles, which are now 
undergoing reproduction. 
The oral appendages of the female also undergo a great 
change. As in the male, the lanceolate organs of the 
mouth are lost; but, unlike the male, they are replaced 
by no other appendages. Dissection shows us that they 
have neither mandibles nor the anterior pair of maxillz. 
The only appendages which the female adult Anceus has 
upon the oral surface of the cephalon, are the maxillipods 
anda pair of gnathopoda, and even these are so depreciated 
in character as to become rudimentary rather than nor- 
mal appendages. The maxillz consist of four gradually 
diminishing joints, supported on a broad base that has 
the antero-median angle produced to a blunt point. The 
enathopods are reduced to two or three joints, at the 
base of which, on the internal surface, is a broad, exqui- 
sitely thin, membranous scale.* 
Still more remarkable, beneath these appendages there 
appears to be neither mouth, stomach, nor alimentary 
canal. 
The immediate assumption of every carcinologist will 
be that we may have mistaken exuvia, or cast skin, for the 
animal. With the exuviee all the appendages, together 
with the stomach and alimentary canal, are thrown off. 
* This delicate membrane is unnoticed by Hesse and other previous 
writers. It occurs only in the adult females, and is perfectly identical in its 
character with the membrane forming the outer cover of the ovigerous sac. 
If we suppose the large outer pair of appendages of the mouth of the female 
to represent the second pair of Jegs or gnathopoda, we at once arrive at the 
conclusion that this membrane is portion of the ovarian sac, which normally 
exists in this position (see figure of Paranthwra), and, indeed, in the females 
of the Irish species it seemed to us, on dissection of several specimens, to be 
actually continuous with the membrane within the first pair of true legs, and 
to form, in fact, a jugular opening of the pouch, whence we extracted several 
of the young, the antenne of one of which was actually inserted between this 
pair of supposed gnathopods of the female. See the upper right hand figure 
in page 190, 
