Rev. A. M. Norman's N'otes on British Amphipoda. 133 



1830. Gammarua podager, Milue-Edwards, Ann. des Sci. Nat. vol. xx. 



p. 369. 

 1840. Amphithoe obtusata, M.-Edwards, Hist, des Crust, vol. iii. p. 83. 

 1852. Gammarus maculatus, Lilljeborg, Ufv. af Kongi, Vet.-Akad. 



Forh. p. 10. 

 1859. Gammanis ohttisntus, Bruzelias, Skand. Araphip. Garam. p. 55. 

 18G2. Melifa ohtusata, Bate & Westw. Brit. Se.ssile-eyed Crust, vol. i. 



p. 341, cf (figure but not description). 

 18G2. MeUta proxima, iid. ibid. p. 334 (var. S)- 

 18G2. Megamcera Alderi, iid. ibid. p. 407, $ . 

 1862. Melitn podager, Bate, Cat. Auiphip. Brit. Mus. p. 184, pi. xxxiii. 



fig. 5. 

 1868. Mehfa ohtmata, Norman, Last Report Dredging Shetland, Brit. 



Assoc. Report, p. 284. 

 1872. Melitu obtusata, Boeck, Be Skand. og Arkt. Ampliip. p. 386, 

 1880. Melita obtusata, Hoek, Carcinologiscbes, p. 140, pi. x. figs. 8, 9. 



Tn the ' Last Report of Dredging among the Shetland Isles ' 

 I drew attention to the facts that ohtusata and proxima were 

 two forms of the male, and that Megamcera Alderi was the fe- 

 male of this species ; and it is not without some hesitation that 

 I retain even the following species M. gladiosa as distinct from 

 the present. If it is to be kept distinct some corrections 

 must, I take it, be made in the synonymy. 



M. ohtusata is characterized by several forms, those named 

 being the type, which has a single dorsal tooth upon the 

 second and third segments of pleon, *' segmenta postabdo- 

 niinis secundum et tertium in medio margine posteriore den- 

 tibus singulis armata ; segmenta quartum et quintum denti- 

 bus binis aut ternis instructa ^' {Boeck)^ and the variety 

 2-iroxiina, in which the dorsal teeth of second and third seg- 

 ments are absent. Judging from Bate and Westwood's 

 figure (which is, however, at any rate unsatisfactory as 

 regards the fourth and fifth segments) Montagu's type appears 

 to be the first form. When we come to examine further, 

 however, there appears to be confusion. The figure in the 

 Cat. Amphip. Brit. Mus. must have been taken from Bate'3 

 Plymouth specimen, and represents three teeth or divisions of 

 the second and third segments, while in the description no 

 mention is made of the exact number of teeth. " Second, 

 third, fourth, and fifth segments of the pleon have small 

 teeth upon the postero-dorsal margin." On the other hand, 

 in the Hist. Brit. Sessile-eyed Crust, the Plymouth specimen 

 and not Montagu's is described, and we are told " the second, 

 third, fourth, and fifth segments of the tail are furnished 

 at the posterior margin, on the back, with a central and two 

 small lateral denticles or tooth-like processes." It would 

 seem therefore that the Plymouth specimen thus figured in 

 the Catalogue and described in Brit. Sessile-eyed Crust. 



