324 COLLECTIONS FROM MELANESIA. 



described as tuberculated ; the seventh joint is very short ; the 

 eighth slightly curved and nearly as long as the sixth, the terminal 

 claw about half as long as the eighth joint ; the two auxiliary claws 

 placed, as usual, above the base of the principal claw. The body 

 and limbs are clothed with a very short, close pubescence, and the 

 joints of the limbs with scattered longer hairs ; the last three joints 

 of the ovigerous legs have some rather stronger simple setae, and 

 the eighth joints of the legs have each a series of three or four 

 spine-like bristles on the under surface near the base. 



The single specimen, which is in very imperfect condition, is 

 from Port Jackson. As no traces of the ovary could be seen, I 

 think it is a male. 



This specimen resembles the British form designated A. hispida 

 by Hodge * (which is probably a mere variety of A. Icevis) rather 

 than the typical A. linns, as represented in that author's figures, in 

 the form of the rostrum and abdomen, but the leg-bearing pro- 

 cesses of the segments of the body are more closely approximated 

 and the animal more densely pubescent than in either form. I do 

 not observe the " circlet of little spines " at the extremity of the 

 first joint of the mandibles mentioned by Hodge in his diagnosis of 

 A. hispida. Bohm f refers specimens from Kerguelen Island to 

 this species ; but his figure of the palpus differs markedly from the 

 same limb as figured by Hodge in A. lavis. 



There are in the British-Museum collection two specimens of 

 uncertain British locality, probably referable to A. lavis ; but they 

 are in a very bad state of preservation, being gummed upon card- 

 board, and can scarcely be identified with certainty. 



It is to be regretted that during the transference of the specimen 

 from spirit to the slide on which it is mounted for the microscope, 

 the eighth joint of the only perfect leg was lost; but the figure, 

 •* hich was outlined while the specimen was yet in spirit, represents 

 with sufficient accuracy the form of this joint. 



This species is referable to the genus Achelia as limited by Dr. 

 Hoek in his recent Classification of the PycnogonidaJ. 



Dr. Anton Dohrn § has united this genus (with several others) 

 with Ammothea, and the distinctions separating these genera are 

 certainly very slight. I think it better, however, having only two 

 species under consideration, to refer them to the genera as charac- 

 terized by Hoek, his being a complete synopsis of the known 

 genera and species of the group. 



2. Phoxichilidium hoekii. (Plate XXXV. fig. B.) 



Body robust, with narrow intervals between the leg-bearing 

 processes at base. Proboscis cylindrical, increasing slightly in thick- 

 ness to its distal extremity, inserted ventrally between the bases of 



* Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 3, xiii. p. 1 15, pL xiii. fig. 11 (18fi4\ 



1 Monatsb. der Akad. Wissenschaft. Berlin, p. 186, pi. i. fig. 5 (1879). 



J Report on the Pycnogonida ofH.M.S. 'Challenger,' p. :_'<'> (1881). 



§ ' JJie Pantopoden des Golfes ron Neapel,' p. 134 I 1881). 



