282 A HISTORY OF RECENT CRUSTACEA 
its inner edge. The pleon is depressed and wide; the inner 
spine of the ventral prolongation from the peduncle of the 
uropod is longer than the outer; the telson is usually 
longer than wide, and it has more than four secondary 
spines between the intermediate and submedian marginals. 
There are numerous species in this genus. Squilla 
mantis received the name which it still bears from the 
French naturalist Rondelet in the sixteenth century. That 
author warns his readers that they will not find any 
account of this species in the older writers, such as Aristotle 
and Pliny, Athenzeus and Oppian. He chose the specific 
name because of the likeness which this long-armed marine 
animal shows to the Mantis insect, and he explains that 
the Mantis or ‘soothsayer, also known in the south of 
France as the Preguediou or praying insect, derived the 
latter name from its emaciated devotee-like figure, and the 
former from the childish superstition that if asked the road 
to Rome or to St. James of Compostella, it would indicate 
it by holding out one or other of its arms. He takes the 
opportunity of observing that his contemporary Bellon has 
given a very bad drawing of this species, leaving out much 
that should have been put in, and putting in much that 
ought to have been left out. Yet Rondelet himselfappears 
to bestow upon the pleon several more segments than it is 
by nature endowed with. This species is occasionally 
found in British waters, but is much more common in the 
Mediterranean, where it is used as an article of food. It 
attains a length of seven inches. The membranaceous 
carapace has a longitudinal central ridge, and on either 
side there are strong grooves. It narrows forwards, and 
in a specimen six and a half inches long, the carapace, in- 
cluding the rostrum or movable frontal plate, is about an 
inch and three quarters long. ‘The eyes have a peculiar 
hammer-like appearance, being very wide on narrow stalks. 
The second maxillipeds have the terminal joint armed with 
in all six long teeth which can close against pits in the 
margin of the strong preceding joint. This joint itself has 
a minutely denticulated border alongside of the pits, and 
also three movable spines near its base. The outer margin 
