WHEEE THE FOOD THERE THE FEEDERS 201 



of* a solid lash, but it is explained to mean ' the absence of 

 a lash.' 



Willemoesia^ Grote, 1873, was at first named Deodamia 

 by Dr. v. Willemoes Suhm, but that name was pre- 

 occupied. Here the eye-stalks are rudimentary, not lodged 

 in a notch in the dorsal surface of the carapace, but in the 

 frontal space. The first antennee have the first joint pro- 

 duced to a scale-like process, which is forced up into a 

 crest-like ridge ; the two flagella are very unequal. The 

 trunk-limbs are all chelate in both sexes. The telson 

 tapers to a joint. The type species, Willemoesia lepto- 

 dactyla (v. Willemoes Suhm), occurs in the Mediterranean, 

 Atlantic, and Pacific between the depths of 1,300 and 

 2,225 fathoms. This and the species of the kindred genera 

 are almost always taken on an oceanic floor of globigerina 

 ooze, and Mr. Spence Bate infers from this that the cha- 

 racter of the food may have been one of the most perma- 

 nent influences in their geographical distribution. The 

 remark is capable of a very extended application. 



Family 2. — Nephropsidce. 



The carapace is sub-cylindrical, with a pronounced 

 rostrum. The second antennae have a long multiarticulate 

 flagellum. The segments of the pleon are dorsally imbri- 

 cated. The outer branch of the uropods has a transverse 

 suture. The ' mastigobranchiaB ' or epipodal plates are 

 large, having a well-developed podobranchial plume attached 

 to all the trunk-legs except the last pair. 



Six genera are assigned to this family. Spence Bate 

 calls it the Homaridae, from Homarus, the name which 

 Milne-Edwards gave to the genus containing the common 

 lobster, but since that genus was already named Astaciis 

 by Leach, Homarus must be discarded as a synonym. 

 Since a freshwater genus in a different family has been 

 misnamed Astacus, by which the application of Astacidae 

 as a family name has been confused, it seems better to 

 give a new family name to the lobsters, and for this pur- 

 pose Nephropsidae readily suggests itself. 



