the Atlantic Cossonidcs. 393 



aided to them. Thus, on tliis princi[)le, the fust articidation 

 (mow hidden wiihin the augmented tihial-apex) appears to have 

 heen short and small, the second one (now furnished with these 

 two immense spiniform lobes) much larger and slightly emarginate 

 at its front edge, the third (likewise armed with these elongate 

 lateral appendages) rather smaller and slenderer, and a little more 

 decidedly emarginate at its apex, whilst the ultimate one (at the 

 hase of whicli 1 Lc/icve I can discern evidences of the minute 

 penultimate joint oi" the ordinary pseudotetramerous foot) would 

 appear to have terminated bejore the base of the two (coin- 

 p:iratively short) divaricating and exceedingly thin lobes which 

 now crown its apex. 



On this explanation (wliich I believe to be really correct), the 

 f mt is reduced from a perfectly incompreh.eusible type to an in- 

 ti'iiigible one; and allbough (to make my meaning more plain) I 

 have u.s( d the term " development," &:c., in speaking of these 

 al)normal spiniform lobes, I do not mean tliereliy to express my 

 conviction that the latter have actiuiUij been added to a foot v>I,icli 

 was originally formed after the fixed lihynchophorous pattern ; but 

 sim|)ly that that typo has not altogether been lost sight of in even 

 this extravagant modification of it. 



Since the " developments" at the apex of the tibia of this Cur- 

 culionideous monster, and which so marvellously increase the 

 length of what I have (somewhat fancifully) designated the 

 " original" limb, follow the exact relative positions of the ordinary 

 tibird spur and hook (at the internal and external angles, respec- 

 tively); and since the spiniform lobes of the second and third 

 tarsal joints likewise arise from the angles of those articulations 

 (as though they were enormous prolongations of them) ; I there- 

 fore conclude, from analogy, that the two (smaller) terminal lobes 

 of the last tarsal-joint follow the same law, and may be regarded, 

 consequently, as prolongations of the a/igles of that joint, and 

 have nothing whatever to do with the uiiguicnli, — which they, 

 therefore, do not represent. And, in support of this, the evident 

 indications that are j)resent may be adduced of the claw-joint 

 having (as it were) terminated before the base, or commencement, 

 of this bifurcated "appendage." Or we may state it thus: — 

 since the claws are altogether absent in the fronl-ket, it-would 

 appear the less improbable a priori that they might have become 

 also obsolete in the posterior ones, — absorbed (as it were), if I 

 may so express it, by this anomalous development of spiniform 

 lobes; in which case the lobes could not be said to represent them, 



VOL, V. N.S. PART IX, — JUNE, 18G1. D V 



