154 Mr. P. H. Gosse on new or little-knowrc Marine Animals. 



body is armed with six tufts of plumose bristles, set transversely 

 at nearly equal distances. The thorax has three transverse rows, 

 and the abdomen one on every segment. Each tuft consists of 

 from ten to fifteen plumes, which spring from a point and di- 

 verge in a fan-like manner in the longitudinal plane. Each 

 plume is a slender straight taper stem, set distichously with two 

 rows of very close pinnse, diverging at a small angle from the 

 stem, and graduated to a point, like the barbs of a feather. 

 These plumose tufts are very peculiar, and are sufficiently con- 

 spicuous during life even to the naked eye ; though, being very 

 deciduous, it is rare to find the whole series perfect, and in dried 

 specimens they are frequently altogether wanting. In this con- 

 dition the species may be easily mistaken for H. varians, which it 

 resembles closely in many of its characters, besides the form and 

 denticulation of the rostrum. It may, however, be distinguished 

 at once, while alive, by its colour, which, though varying, does 

 not assume any of the phases of H. varians. It is usually pellucid 

 white, clouded with opake drab, and generally blotched with 

 dark reddish purple. When dead, and divested of its tufts, the 

 rostrum displays minute but constant points of difference, in the 

 closer proximity of the upper and lower apical teeth to the apex, 

 and in the wider separation of the two lower teeth inter se. The 

 relation of the filaments of the internal antennae to each other, in 

 length and thickness, also affords a good distinction ; but not 

 the direction of the thicker; for though this in H. varians is 

 stated by Professor Bell not to be bent at right angles, I must 

 venture to coiTcct this observation ; its angle, according to my 

 experience, is as abrupt during the life of the animal as it is in 

 H. Cranchii for instance. 



Hippolyte fascigera is taken with the dredge in Weymouth 

 Bay a few miles from land ; though less numerous than some 

 other species of the genus, it cannot be considered rare. 



Hippolyte Cranchii (Leach). Cranch's Hippolyte. 



The colours of this little species when alive, taken by compa- 

 rison of several specimens, are as follows. Upper parts nearly 

 white, the rest light pellucid purple, in which the blue or the 

 red element prevails in irregular patches. The hue is most 

 positive on the legs, where it is banded, on the terminal segment 

 of the abdomen, on the tail-plates, and on the false feet. In 

 other parts it is seen by means of a lens to consist of minute 

 stellate specks on a light ground. The extruded ova, which form 

 a lai'ge mass, are white, becoming olive. Sometimes the whole 

 animal is of a pellucid drab hue, with scattered purple specks. I 

 have seen a specimen which was wholly of a deep purple, except 



