igoj.] Records of the Indian Museum. 279 



the others and not fixed to any external object. The egg;s appear 

 to have measured about 10 mm. in diameter and are spherical ; they 

 have an outer covering of comparatively loose jelly, the inner cover- 

 ing that contains the larva being more tenacious and having a 

 greater density. The escaping larva measures 9 mm. in length — 

 of which 3 mm. is occupied by the tail — and 175 mm. in greatest 

 d^pth ; its body is rounded owing to the large amount of yolk 

 held in the belly, but its tail is laterally compressed and has 

 a lanceolate outline. The head is small and round, measuring 

 i"5 mm. in length ; the eyes are large bat not protuberant ; they 

 appear to be covered with skin, but the eyeball can be detected 

 externally. There are four deHcate external gills on either side, 

 each set being arranged in a graduated series from above down- 

 wards. The mouth is open externally and is transverse and rela- 

 tively large ; behind it there is a conspicuous fold of the body-wall. 

 The anus is still imperforate. The belly is white, but the tail and 

 the back and sides of the body are grey, with large black pigment- 

 cells forming almost a reticulated pattern. 



N. Annandale. 



CRUSTACEA. 



The hosts of Tachcea spongillicola, Stebbing. — This Isopod, 

 recently described by the Rev. T. R. R. Stebbing {Journ. Linn. 

 Soc, Zool., XXX, p. 39, 1907) from Calcutta, was first found in 

 smill numbers in Spongilla carteri, but, owing to a misapprehen- 

 sion, the author of the species suggested in a footnote to his des- 

 cription that it might have come from a form of 5. lacustris. This 

 misapprehension was due to a letter of my own in which I intended 

 to refer to a very different Isopod found in Spongilla alba at 

 Port Canning. During the present summer, however, I have 

 found numerous specimens of Tachcea spongillicola in Ephydatia 

 indica, so that it is evidently not confined to one host. Ephydatia 

 indica is a sponge often found on the bottom of tanks, growing 

 most commonly on the roots of water-plants. Possibly this habit 

 may explain the abundance of the Isopod in its canals ; as the 

 latter is rare in Spongilla carteri, which generally grows near the 

 surface but has very much wider apertures and canals than any 

 other species common in Calcutta. 



N. Annandale. 



A SECOND SPECIES OF Dichelaspis from Bathynomus giganteus. — 

 The Indian Museum is fortunate in possessing a fine series of 

 specimens of the giant deep-sea Isopod Bathynomus giganteus, 

 Milne-Edwards, and Barnacles of the genus Dichelaspis occur on 

 the pleopods in every case. I recently described examples of these 

 Barnacles from a specimen from the Arabian Sea as the types of 

 a new species, D. hathynomi {Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (7), xvii, 

 p. 46), and others from specimens from the Andaman Sea and off 

 the Madras coast agree with them. .Those on another specimen, 

 however, from off Ceylon, closely resemble D. occlusa, Manchester, 



