■iOG Mr. L. J. Cole on Ten-legged Pgcnogonids. 



regardiug their abundance says, "They are to be found in 

 considerable numbers in connexion with the fuci, thrown up 

 by the waves along tbe shores of the islands, after being 

 detached by the motion of the large masses of ice, from the 

 bottom of tbe sea/' It appears that the specimens were 

 collected by himself, and at least the one from which the 

 description was made is recorded as in the " Cabinet of James 

 Eights/' About a year ago I attempted to secure informa- 

 tion regarding Dr. James Eights and where he had lived, in 

 the hope of locating these specimens, but was unsuccessful. 

 Thinking they might have been deposited later in the collec- 

 tions of the Boston Society of Natural History, with the 

 assistance of Mr. Johnston, the Curator, I made search there, 

 but with like result. 



An interesting question immediately arises as to the rela- 

 tionship of these unusual forms to the other Pycnogonida. 

 It. would be natural to expect that they would form a rather 

 closely related and perhaps primitive group — possibly a 

 distinct family — by themselves; but such does not appear to 

 be the case. As has been stated, the only important feature 

 in which Pentanymphon differs from Nymphon is in the 

 possession of the extra pair of appendages. Decolopoda, on 

 the other hand, resembles more closely in general appear- 

 ance the genus ChcEtonymphon of G. O. Sars; but the 

 possession of 10-jointed palpi throws it out of the family 

 Nymphonidae entirely if we accept the family as limited by 

 Sars (J891, p. 54), though it might be included in the 

 broader definitions given by Meinert (1899, p. 33) and Hoek 

 (188 1, p. 17). It still differs, however, from the other 

 known forms in the family by the possession of so many 

 (ten) palpal joints, and would seem to come intermediate 

 between the Nymphonidfe and the Eurycydidpe (Asco- 

 rhynchidffi), leaving out of consideration for the present the 

 extra pair of legs. Th're are two ways in which these forms 

 might be related to the other Pycnogonids : — (I) The extra 

 pair of appendages may indicate that they are more primitive 

 and that this is an indication of their origin from a form 

 which possessed a still larger number of segments, thus 

 forming, perhaps, a connexion Avith the Crustacea; or (2) it 

 may be a character which represents a later differentiation, 

 though this latter does not to me seem at all probable. In 

 this connexion the speculation of Eights in the paper men- 

 tioned above (1837, p. 205) is of interest. He says : — ''I 

 have placed this interesting animal in the class ARACH- 

 NIDES, in consequence of its close approximation to 



