CRUSTACEANS. 235 



This is a languid and inactive animal, of the most tranquil disposi- 

 tion. 



Among several specimens collected on the 21st of February, was a 

 prolific female, fig. 2. I believe that fig. 1, taken in another year, was 

 a female also. But that now referred to as fig. 2 was distinguished by a 

 great cake of spawn, not less than towards half an inch in diameter, and 

 half a line thick. This being attached to the under surface, added still 

 more to the singularity of the appearance. — Plate LXIV. fig. 2, Nt/mphou 

 gracilis, a, a, a, a, limbs ; b, b, cake of spawn. 



The animal was now sustaining itself on its limbs. It rested like- 

 wise after the fashion of the Cancer phalangium, with the body sunk 

 amidst the whole, only in the present case the cake of roe was below, and 

 the limbs bent back quite upright, as if to shun some inconvenience. 

 Fig. 3, limbs, a, a; cake of roe, b, b. The cake had somewhat of a 

 villous aspect. Forty-eight hours after assuming the strange position 

 now described, the creature lay supine, as if dead, with all the limbs ex- 

 tended. 



But the new attitudes enabled me to discover that the roughish look- 

 ing surface of what I concluded a cake of pure roe or spawn was, in fact, 

 a congeries of numerous young, some separating from the parent, others 

 free. 



At this period they are white, of various dimensions, and in various 

 states, but undergoing scarcely any sensible metamorphosis, unless in the 

 development of additional limbs. 



Of these some had four, and some had six, according as younger 

 or older, for a few houre might produce the difference. The expansion 

 of the Umbs was from about half a line to the sixteenth of an inch be- 

 tween their opposite tips. — Fig. 4, enlarged. In these young animals 

 with six limbs, the pair of the complement still defective, appeared 

 merely two stumps. 



The parent having lain some time supine, as above described, re- 

 vived, and reared itself upon its legs during the subsequent day. 



The production of many young still continued, either single, or by 

 the separation of clusters, consisting of several entangled together. 



