ORDER STOMAPODA. 103 



is well exemplified by the prawn (Paltemon serratus Pennant), 

 as well as by other species which, in various parts of the 

 world, are ranch eaten, either by being simply boiled, or 

 salted and potted, and by the common edible shrimp (Cancer 

 Cranyon Linn., Crangon vulgaris Fabricius). There are 

 several species of this genus, but the most common and best 

 known is that above mentioned, and which is found in great 

 profusion swimming in shoals near the shores with great 

 agility upon their backs. Immense numbers of them are 

 eaten, especially by the inhabitants of the western coasts of 

 Europe. They are caught by means of a large open net, 

 held at the end of a long stick, by women and boys, upon 

 our sandy shores. They are also employed as a bait for 

 several kinds of fish. 



ORDER II. STOMAPODA. 



This order is of small extent, but very singular struc- 

 ture, which, both as regards the variations of organiza- 

 tion itself, and the curious analogies clearly exhibited with 

 other and distant tribes of animals, renders this a very in- 

 teresting group. The branchiae are not affixed at the sides 

 of the thorax, and placed in a particular cavity prepared 

 for them, as in the crabs and lobsters ; but where there ex- 

 ists particular organs of respiration, they are found under 

 the form of membranous ciliae, attached to the sub-abdominal 

 appendages. These animals have the teguments slender and 

 transparent, and not of that firm consistence which is found 

 in the lobster. The carapax, or shell, is often divided into 

 two parts, one bearing the eyes and antenna;, the other the 

 appendages of the mouth and the thoracic legs ; in other 

 groups it is formed of a single piece, and exposes a certain 

 number of the terminal thoracic segments ; the abdomen is 



