FROM CORNWALL TO AMBOTNA 229 



Family 1. — NihidcH. 



The rostrum is horizontal with the dorsal surface of 

 the carapace ; the mandibles are without a cutting edge, 

 and are without ' palp ; ' the first pair of trunk-legs are 

 simple or chelate, and stronger than the second, but not 

 so long ; the second are minutely chelate. 



To this family Spence Bate apparently refers three 

 genera distinguished as follows : — 



Nika, Risso, 1816, with one of the trunk-legs of the 

 first pair chelate, and the other simple. 



GlijpJiocrangon^ A. Milne-Edwards, 1881, with both of 

 the trunk-legs of the first pair simple. 



Lysmata, Risso, 1826, with both of the trunk-legs of 

 the first pair chelate. 



There are various other marks of distinction, such as 

 the flagella of the first antennae, of which in NiJai one is 

 long, the other short, while both are short in Ghjpliocran- 

 gon, and both long in Lysmata, this latter genus carry- 

 ing also a third lash which is short. In Nika, the second 

 pair of trunk-legs are, like the first, not strictly a pair, 

 since they differ greatly in length. Nika ediJlis, Risso, is 

 found in British waters. On the shores of the Mediter- 

 raliean it is used for food, as the specific name implies, 

 and the same is said of Lysmata seticaudata, Risso, a coral- 

 red species, longitudinally striped with whitish lines. Bell 

 describes a second British species of Nika, as Nika Gouchii, 

 in which the telson is not channelled, and Spence Bate 

 speaks vaguely of a British specimen of his Nika processa 

 taken by the Cliallenger at Amboina, but apparently with- 

 out any intention of separating the British specimens from 

 Nika edulis, and in his edition of Couch's ' Cornish Crus- 

 tacea,' he expressly says that Nika Gouchii of Bell is 

 nothing more than a variety of N. edidis. Of Glypho- 

 crangon many species have been described from north and 

 south and east and west, some of the forms descending to 

 great depths ; but Spence Bate, who names no less than 

 six of the species, says that ' the various forms of this 

 genus can scarcely be considered as being more than 



