168 Miscellaneous. 



The Australian species has 14 ribs, while the New-Zealand 

 species has only 12, of which the first one is broad and flat, and 

 has, like the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth, two articulating 

 surfaces ; whilst, according to MacLeay, the Australian species has 

 only one articulating surface on the first rib. The second rib ex- 

 hibits a considerable breadth, whilst the succeeding ones become 

 gradually narrower. The last six ribs, which assume a rounded 

 shape, possess only one articulating surface. 



Even supposing the minor difference in the form of the skull to 

 be due to sex, the number, arrangement, and form of the vertebrae 

 and ribs would prove the distinct specific character of the New- 

 Zealand specimen. 



The contents of the stomach consisted of a dark slimy matter, 

 without any beaks of Cephalopods as found in Bemrdius Arnuxi. 



There is only a single valve covering the blowholes, the slit being 

 2 inches long, of which 1| inch lies on the left and ^ inch on the 

 right side of the top of the head. The skin surrounding the valve 

 is raised in a lunate form rather conspicuously on the left side, open 

 posteriorly. The left side of the valve is far more developed and 

 stronger than the right one. 



The skeleton will be figured in the forthcoming volume of the 

 ' Transactions of the New-Zealand Institute,' t. xv. 



On a new Genus of Asellidse. By Oscar Harger. 



The presence of mandibular palpi has been hitherto regarded as 

 a character of the family of Asellidce, and is thus given by Dana 

 (U. 8. Exploring Expedition, Crustacea, p. 714), and by Bate and 

 Westwood, in their late work on British Sessile-eyed Crustacea, 

 vol. ii. p. 313. This organ is present and well developed in Joera 

 copiosa, AseUodes alta, and Limnoria lignorum, marine species of 

 this family found on the coast of New England. It has been care- 

 fully figured by G. 0. Sars (Hist. Nat. des Crustacea d'eau douce 

 de Norvege, 1^ livr. pi. viii.) for Asellus aquaticus, and occurs in 

 A. communis. Say, as well developed as in the European species ; 

 but in A. tenax, Smith, from Lake Superior, it is wanting. This 

 species seems to be in aU other respects closely related to the 

 genus Asellus, differing from other species of that genus by cha- 

 racters of specific value only. The most noticeable of these differ- 

 ences are the following : — the antennula3 have the third segment of 

 the peduncle small, short, and similar to those of the flagellum ; 

 the ocelli are numerous, as in A. communis ; the appendages of 

 the first abdominal segment in the females are sub-quadrant-shaped, 

 meeting each other along the median line, much as in A. communis, 

 instead of subeircular and overlapping as in A. aquaticus. The 

 caudal stylets resemble those of A. aquaticus, as do also the feet 

 and the mouth-parts, except in the absence of the mandibular 

 palpi ; and on this character I propose for the species the new 

 generic name oi Asellopsis. — SiUimans American Jounud, June 1874. 



