204 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 

 ORC HOMENELLA CILIATA, G. O. SarS. 



Tryphosa ciliata, G. O. Sars, Oversigt af Norges 

 Crust., Christiania Vidensk.-Selsk. Forhandl. (l!'82), 

 No. 18, p. 81 ; tab. 3, fig. 4. 



Orchomenella ciliata, G. O. Sars, Crustacea of Nor- 

 way, Amphipoda, part 4 (1891), p. 69; pi. 25, fig. 2. 



Sars gives the colour as greyish-white, with light- 

 red eyes. The Clyde specimens are salmon-coloured, 

 with the eyes bright-red ; but in other respects they 

 agree very exactly with the description and figures 

 given by Sars of this species. 



Habitat. — Dredged west of the Tan Buoy, Cumbrae, 

 at a depth of 14 fathoms. 



This seems to be one of the sea-scavengers. A 

 fisherman brought me portions of the crab Lithodes 

 maia from his bait-creel, and every part of it was 

 crowded with this species, clustered on the top of 

 each other. All the flesh was as perfectly cleaned off 

 the body, legs, and claws of the crab, as if the parts 

 had been bleached on the shore for a twelvemonth. 

 The number of these amphipods was quite surprising, 

 and I liad a six-ounce bottle filled with them. So far 

 as I have seen, they are all of the same species. The 

 wonder is why they remained on the empty shell of 

 the crab after having cleaned out all the soft parts, 

 unless, like the Boa Constrictor after a great feast, 

 they require a long time to digest it. 



I put some forty or fifty of them into a basin of 

 clean sea-water, and for about a week they clustered 

 much on the top of each other, so as to form little 

 heaps. After that time they separated, and swam 

 freely through the water. I killed a small shore-crab, 

 broke it open, and put it in the basin beside them, 

 but not one of them appeared to touch it. The crab 

 began to decompose, and caused the water to smell 

 offensively. Many of the amphipods then sickened 

 and died ; and the few survivors were put into clean 

 sea-water, where they also died after a short time. 



Seldom finding these animals in the dredge, and 

 wishing to see if they burrowed, I put some of them 



