KO. 1791. 



SPERM TRANSFER IN DECAPODS— ANDREWS. 



433 



contents squeezed out of it as it is emerging and further strengthens 

 the view that these masses are the spermatophores. 



The only objection to the acceptance of this view is the state- 

 ment of Geoffrey Smith in his paper above referred to." He states: 



The presence of this spermatheca is of considerable taxonomic importance, as it 

 appears to be entirely absent in the other Schizopods, viz, Mysidacea and Euphau- 

 siacea, but to be present in certain of the more primitive Decapods. In the lobster 

 and certain prawns a similar spermatheca is present, and in the peculiar Eryonidea 

 (Polychelcs, Willemcesia) the presence of a spermatheca in the same position was 

 pointed out to me by Mr. Gray, of the Oxford University Museum. The investiga- 

 tion of this spermatheca in the female of Polycheles has revealed a structure identical 

 with that of Anaspidcs. The spermatheca of Polycheles is a shield-shaped chitinous 

 structure with a median opening leading into a tube which bifurcates exactly as in 

 Anaspidcs. There can be no doubt that the structure in both cases is strictly homolo- 

 gous, and that we have in the spermatheca of Anaspidacea a Decapodan character, 

 parallel to the presence of the otocyst on the first antennje. 



Fig. 15.— Cross section of base of last leg of male Polycheles scitlptus, near the external 



ORIFICE OF the DEFEREXT DUCT, SHOWING THE MUSCULAR WALL OF THE DUCT AS A DARK CIRCLE 

 ENCLOSING THE CLEAR SPERMATOPHORE SECRETION AND A CENTRAL CORE OF SPERM. 



As several authors have described the spermatheca of Anaspidacea 

 as an actual cavity within the female shell within which a pair of 

 spermatophores is found, we can not suppose this spermatheca com- 

 parable to what we have found in Polycheles. Hence to reconcile 

 the present description of the spermatophores of Polycheles with 

 the above statement of Smith that Polycheles has a spermatheca 

 which is identical with that of Anaspidacea (that is, a female organ 



a Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., 1909, pp. 517-518. 

 Proc.N.M.vol.39— 10 30 



