Gael Bovallius, The Oxycephalids. 



I. HISTORICAL îsOTES OÎS' THE OXYCEPHALIDS. 



The Oxycephalids seem to have been comparatively late attended 

 to by the zoologists, the tirst who described such an animal was H. 

 Milne Edwards, 1, the great reformer of the carcinological system, giving 

 in 1830 the diagnosis of the genus Oxycephalus. He placed the 

 new genus among the »Hypérines anormales», but said »Ces amphipodes 

 s'éloignent de la plupart des Hypérines par la forme grêle et allongée, 

 par leur tête aplatie et lancéolée, etc.» The species he named Oxy- 

 cephalus piscatoris. 



Two years later Anastasio Cocco, 2 and 2 a, established the new ge- 

 nus Ovio^ which partly is synonymous with Oxycephalus, his species Orio 

 Ornithoramphus, however, is very difficult to identify, owing to the incom- 

 plete diagnosis ; a facsimile of his drawing is given by Stebbing 1. c. p. 

 145 ; as far as I know it is the first drawing of an Oxycephalid, met with 

 in the literature. Nicolo Prestandrea, 3, described in 1833 a new species 

 of the just mentioned genus, Orio oxyahingus; it is very unclear where 

 this species might be placed, in the systematical arrangement below it 

 is omitted as being deficiently described; Stebbing 1. c. p. 152 assumes 

 that Oxyahingus must be a misprint for Oxyrhingus, and this probably 

 a malformation for Oxyrhynchus. In 1836 F. E. Guérin, 4, instituted the 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



1. H. Milne Edwards »Extrait de Recherches pour servir à l'Historié naturelle 



des Crustacés amphipodes». Annales des Sciences naturelles. 

 Tome 20"% p. .396. Paris, 1830. 



2. Anastasio Cocco. »Su di alcuni nuovi crustacei de' mari di Messina Lettera 



del dött. A. C. al celebre dött. William Elford Leach, etc.» 

 Effemeridi scientifiche e letterarie per la Sicilia. Tomo 2^°, Pa- 

 lermo, 1832. 2 a see p. 10. 



3. Nicolo Prestandrea. »Su di alcuui nuovi crustacei dei mari di Messina.» 



Effemeridi scientifiche e letterarie per la Sicilia. Tomo 6'°, Pa- 

 lermo, 1833. 



4. F. E. GuÉRiN. sDescri])tion de quelques genres nouveaux de Crustacés appar- 



tenant à la famille des Hypérines.» Magasin de Zoologie; 6™* 

 Année. 1836. Classe VII, p. 10, pi. 18, fig. 2. Paris, 1836. 



