THE ISOPOD CRUSTACEAN ACANTIIONISCUS 

 SPINIGER KINAHAN REDESCRIBED. 



By Harriet IIiciiardson, 



Colhiboraior, Dirision of Marine J iirciicbnitcs, LI. fe', National Museum. 



Ill 1847 Adam White" gave the name ulcaiif/ioniscti.s sphiiycr to a 

 new I.so2:)0(l which Mr. Phili}) H. Gosse found in Jamaica. This 

 form was not described at that time. Six years afterward the hitter 

 naturalist'' referred in the following way to this isopod: "A curious 

 little dark gre}^ Oniscus, every segment of which is armed with two 

 si)ines, Avas numerous; it has been described b}" my friend, Mr. Adam 

 White of the British Museum, under the name of Acanfhoniscus 

 spinigery The first description which was published of Acantho- 

 ■nhcus spiniger was that of Kinahan in 1859. *" Kinahan's descrip- 

 tion is based on the original specimen in the British Museum, which 

 was the only specimen he had seen. In 1885 Budde-Lund'' placed in 

 his family Onisci the genus AcanthoniHcvs of which he said : " Ad tri- 

 bum Oniscorum sequentia genera in natura mihi ignota pertinere 

 videntur."" He had evidently not seen the specimen in the British 

 Museum for he gives no description, and although he does not place 

 the genus in either section I, AnnadiUoidea., or section II, Onis- 

 coidca.^ yet he refers to it at the end of his section Onisvokleu. Kina- 

 han did not place the genus in any family. 



About 1877 Mr. H. G. Hubbard, the entomologist, made collections 

 in Jamaica. Some of his collections were given to the Museum of 

 Comi:)arative Zoology and some came to the U. S. National Museum 

 after his death. Among the insects was a specimen of Acantho))ls- 

 c/:s ^■piniger, which was turned over to me last wdnter. The label 

 accompanying it reads: '■^ Onuciis spiniger. Jamaica." As I had 

 not seen a specimen of this species before, and as the only description 

 of it is that given l)y Kinahan, I thought it Avould be of interest to 



"List Crust. Brit. Mus., 1847, p. 99. 



''A Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica, 1851, p. Of). 



f-- Proc. Dublin University, I, 1859, p. 197, pi. 19, fig. 4. 



<* Crust. Isop. Terrestria, 1835, p. 242. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. XXXVI-No. 1678. 



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