Isopod Genus Leptochelia. 159 



Inner branch. Outer branch. 



Leptochelia Savignyi (Krijyer), 2 7-jointed. 1-jointed. 



dubia (Kroyer), S 2 6-jointed. 1-jointed. 



alyicola, Harger, J 2 6-jointed 1-jointed. 



(This species is supposed by Sars 



to correspond partly to L. dubia 



(Kroyer) and partly to L. Savignyi 



(Kroyer).) 



brasiliensis (Dana), 2 6-jointed. Nothing known. 



neapolitana, Sars, S 2 6-jointed. 1-jointed. 



affinis, Hansen, 2 4-jointed. 1-jointed. 



Of these twelve speciticnames Edwardsii and algicolamay be 

 dismissed as synonyms, Jilum and brasiliensis as having- no cer- 

 tainty of position, cceca as obviously belonging elsewhere. The 

 reasons for referring limicola to Ileterotanais are somewhat 

 hypothetical, since limicola is known only in the female, while 

 the principal distinction of Ileterotanais consists in the gnatho- 

 pods of the male, which, instead of being strongly chelate, 

 are very imperfectly so. The group formed by Savignyi, 

 dubia, and neapolitana presents no difficulty in itself, and 

 might very well be separated under a new generic name from 

 Leptochelia minuta. But to this Leptochelia rapax interposes 

 an obstacle, for this species agrees with the group just men- 

 tioned in having the one-jointed outer ramus of the uropods, 

 but agrees very closely with L. minuta in the elongate 

 gnathopods of the male, with feebly tuberculate immobile 

 finger, and in the considerable elongation of the first antenna?. 

 For the present, therefore, it seems advisable to leave the 

 five species last-named as constituents of the genus Lepto- 

 chelia, making the definition of it more comprehensive by 

 recognizing that the outer ramus of the uropods may be 

 either one- or two-jointed, and by omitting such details in 

 regard to the antennae and gnathopods as have been found to 

 be unsuitable to some of the species. L. dubia seems to be 

 rather doubtfully distinguishable from L. Savignyi. 



Hansen's species, published last year, was described from 

 a single female specimen taken at St. Vincent, Cape Verde 

 Islands. Hansen considers that, on the whole, it makes a 

 near approach to Leptochelia dubia (Kroyer), but he remarks 

 that it differs from all hitherto described species of the genus 

 in having only four joints on the inner branch of the uropods. 

 In this respect it will be observed that it makes an approach 

 to Leptochelia rapax, and, by accepting affinis as a sixth 

 species of Leptochelia, we permit the inner ramus of the 

 uropods to consist of either four, five, six, seven, or eight 

 joints. Bate and Westvvood, by their description of Lepto- 

 chelia Edwardsii, would carry the number up even to nine ; but 



