PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 529 
Caves, in Giles County, Virginia, curiously enough, is not blind. This 
is paralleled in the case of two species of Spiders, however, which were 
collected for me in a cave in Oregon, over a year ago, by Professor Cope. 
In one of them there is not a vestige of the eyes remaining, while in the 
other they are well developed. A Myriapod, which appears to be a 
Julus, from the same cavern also has eyes. The Polydesmus cavicola 
Packard, from a cave in Utah, seems to have well-developed eyes. The 
Orchesella ceca, which still remains to be fully described, has very un- 
developed eyes, but differs in no other essential from its congeners. It 
was also collected in an Oregon cavern by Professor Cope. Multitudes 
of facts might be added, but the subject is too large a one for hasty gen- 
eralizations, and must be approached with the same thoroughness of 
purpose which has characterized the work of Messrs. Darwin and Wal- 
lace in their essays upon kindred subjects relating to the origination of 
species. We may be allowed, however, to add that, in the absence of 
proof to the contrary, with the increase in the number of known blind 
forms which are often congeneric with light-loving species, there is the 
strongest kind of ground for supposing that they have descended from 
forms which had eyes, and which wandered into these recesses, where, 
after many generations had lived and died, a blind form appeared, 
which resulted from the gradual abortion of the visual organs of its 
ancestors. In proof of this we have the partially blind Orchesella, which 
now seems to be verging towards such a condition. In the absence of 
a greater number of facts we are not justified in inferring more. True, 
we have a few instances amongst the mollusks, some of which in their 
larval states have useful eyes, but which afterwards become useless and 
abort as the shell develops and gets thicker. Some terrestrial Myria- 
pods are blind, such as Eurypauropus; so is Lumbricus, the earth-worm, 
and some of the dirt-abiding Thysanura, which also live among fallen 
leaves, such as Campodea, while in the burrowing Symphyla (scolopen- 
drell) the eyes are reduced to a single pair, with little or no red or dark 
coloring in the tapetum, differing widely in this respect from the com- 
pound-eyed, terrestrial Myriapods. 
DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF PRIONOTUS (PRIONOTUS 
STEPHANOPHRYS), FROM THE COAST OF CALIFORNEA. 
By W. N. LOCKINGTON. 
Prionotus stephanophrys, sp. nov. d 
Betat. 53 D. 10-12-°A. 11; P.12;V. 1-5; C.3-1-8-1-3. 
Body less elongate than in P. carolinus, head not quite three and a 
half; greatest depth five and a third times in total length. Greatest 
depth under third dorsal ray. 
Snout coneave in profile; forehead convex immediately in front of eye, 
from which to the origin of the dorsal fin the profile rises in almost a 
Proc. Nat. Mus. 80-——34 April 18, i881. 
