REPORT ON THE PYCNOGONIDA. 143 
the male as well as to the female sex. They are comparatively large, often long ovate 
cells with a thin wall, the contents consisting of large granules and a longitudinal slightly 
curved nucleus. 
When colouring the preparations with picrocarmine these forms assume a yellow colour, 
the nucleus becoming beautifully red. They seem to be distributed through the body very 
irregularly and seem to penetrate all the cavities accessible to the blood. In Nymphon 
brevicaudatwm I even observed them in the space before occupied by the eggs, and in 
which still an unripe egg was to be seen. Both in this species and in Nymphon longicoxa 
most of these curious forms are very regularly placed against the wall of the leg, where 
they often form two or even more distinct layers. Their size varies between 0:066 and 
0°081 mm. With regard to their nature my opinion is not at all a settled one; but I 
am strongly inclined to believe them to be the eggs of some parasitic animal. But what 
kind of animal their parent in that case will prove to be I am unable to say. 
The other kind of bodies must be regarded, I believe, as ectoparasites of Colossendeis 
leptorhynchus. Of the ten specimens of this species in the Challenger collection there are 
three which are sprinkled over with these. The one isa male, the two others are female. 
They are rounded, sac-forming bodies, often with a crumpled surface placed at the end 
of a short stalk, the end of the stalk is in connection with the integument of the Pyecno- 
gonid. Their wall is chitinous, and under this outer wall there is a much thinner inner 
one ; in the stalk this inner wall is close to the outer one, but in the globular part there 
is a large open space between the outer and the much smaller inner sac. In this space 
pressed against the outer sac numerous eggs are found, the size of which is 0°088 mm., 
they have a very thin wall and are furnished with a yelk of large rounded elements, 
coloured yellow by picrocarmine. A small nucleus as a red coloured spot, however, is 
always present. 
Whether these are really eggs is the first question to be answered, and I think there 
can be no doubt in respect to this. Moreover, to judge from their structure and that 
of the capsules, they are eggs that are laid after having been fecundated. There is 
only one consideration, I believe, that may be set against this suggestion, and this is, 
that all these eggs are in the same state of development; not only those of the same 
capsule, but of all the capsules I investigated. It must be borne in mind, however, that 
these were brought up by the same haul of the trawl, and probably lived in the neigh- 
bourhood of one another ; consequently I think this objection is of no importance. 
The second question is whether they are the eggs of that Pycnogonid on the legs of 
which they are found, or of another specimen of the same species, or of any other animal. 
Of course it is possible that the eggs are Colossendeis eggs; however, I do not think 
this very probable. In the first place, because males and females both are studded with 
these capsules, and in the second place, because these capsules are totally different from 
the ege-masses commonly found on the ovigerous legs of the Pyenogonids. In favour of 
