Rev. A. M. Norman's Notes on British Amphipoda. 131 



and descriptions ; thirdly, from some of the figures in Boeck's 

 plate xxiv. having been wrongly lettered. 



Boeck's plate xxiv. fig. 2 k, has nothing to do with the 

 present species, and probably ought to have been lettered 4 /*:, 

 as representing, though imperfectly, a second gnathopod of 

 the female of Melita pahnata (or possibly, from the shortness 

 of the wrist, the second gnathopod of Melita pellacida^ G. O. 

 Sars) ; tlie 4 k should perhaps be 2 k\ and intended to repre- 

 sent the second gnathopod of the immature male of Gheiro- 

 cratus Sundevalli. 



While all the other general characters are nearly similar in 

 the two sexes of Cheirocratus Sundevalli, the second gnatho- 

 pods are widely different. That of the male (Pi. XII. 

 figs. l-eS) has a large and remarkably ovate hand ; this hand 

 is densely clothed with long sette towards the distal extre- 

 mity of the upper margin, and the lower side (not the margin 

 only) is also densely setose ; but the peculiarity of the hand 

 is that the strongly curved finger, which is half the length of 

 the hand, does not close against the margin, but upon the 

 middle of the inner face of the hand, where there are three 

 or four spines, against which it in some measure closes, the 

 position being such that when the hand is viewed from the 

 outside the closed finger is completely hidden*. This hand 

 has been well figured by Hoek and Blanc, but not accurately 

 by any previous authors ; and I give illustrations of three 

 forms of it. 



The second gnathopod in the female (PI. XI. fig. 10) is 

 very like the first gnathopod (fig. 9) , but the finger is straightly 

 porrected and the face of the wrist is furnished with nume- 

 rous transverse rows (about seven to nine in number) of 

 hooked seta ; these setee are confined to the front half of the 

 limb, and the innermost seta of each transverse row is very 

 short, while each seta thence to the margin increases in length 

 in most regular gradation, the outermost and longest being 

 simple (^'. e. not hooked). 



The hinder segments of the pleon with their three dorsal 

 teeth and intervening long erect spines are well represented 

 by Stebbing (pi. v. fig. 4), Hoek (pi. x. fig. 13), and Blanc 

 (fig. 77). A glance at this portion of the body will sufiice 

 to distinguish this species from all others except its congener 

 C. assimilis. 



Hah. Outer Skerries Harbour, 2-5 fath. ; off these same 

 islets in 40 fath., and also in Balta Sound, Shetland ; the 



* In the immature, male (fig. 3) the finger is shorter and thicker in 

 proportion to its length and closes on the palm instead of on the face, 

 while the lateral spines are not developed. 



9* 



