Ml". L. J. Cole on Ten-legged Pycnogonicls. 405 



Natal: Verulara ; Portuguese E. Africa : Beira (P. A. 

 Sheppard) . 



Type in the British Museum. 



In addition to the characters mentioned in the key, this 

 species may be distinguished from its only near ally, C. im- 

 meritus, Fahr., by the following points: — the shorter rostrum ; 

 the closer punctuation of the thorax, which is often longitu- 

 dinally scrobiculate ; the broader and more deeply punctured 

 striae on the elytra; and the narrower subcarinate intervals. 



This species was found under the bark of rotten Euphorbia 

 trees. 



LIV. — Ten-legged Pycnogonids, with Remarks on the 

 Clussificution of the Pycnogonida. By Leox J. Cole. 



Ix a recent paper published in this Journal by T. V. Hodgson 

 (1904), Biologist to the National Antarctic Expedition, 

 appears a description of a most interesting Pycnogonid taken 

 during the stay of the 'Discovery' in winter-quarters in 

 Mc^Murdo Bay. It differs from the ordinary members of the 

 gi'oup in possessing five pairs instead of the usual number of 

 four pairs of walking or '• ambulatory '^ legs. In other 

 respects it is very close to the well-known genus Nyinpfion. 

 Hodgson considers that this remarkable animal should be 

 regarded as representing a new genus as well as a new 

 species, and has proposed for it the name Pentanymphoa 

 antarcticum. That it is not a fortuitous or '' freak " variation 

 is pretty well shown by the fact that in all twenty-eight 

 individuals were taken, both males and females. They were 

 found inhabiting water from 12 to 125 fathoms in depth. 



Hodgson believes that " the presence of a fifth pair of legs 

 [is] a character which separates it from all Pycnogonids 

 hitherto known"; but as early as 1837 Eights (1837) pub- 

 lished a description of a Pycnogonid with a fifth pair of 

 walking-legs from the South Shetland Islands, and gave to 

 it the name Decolopoda australis — a fact which seems never 

 to have come to the attention of workers on the group since 

 that time. Eights gives a vei'y good description and illus- 

 tration of the species — much better than the average at that 

 early date, — though the figures do not seem to agree in all 

 details with the description. He states that the entire 

 animal was of a bright scarlet colour, and so figures it ; and 



