212 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[September, 1901. 



iianio ought to be made a synonym of something else. 

 Under the name of " Muiiida Baniffica, Pennant, " they 

 identify the " Astacus Jlii/iiffiux, Pennant," 1777, with 

 the ' I'ayurus rtic/ustis, Fabriciiis," 1781, but in this 

 they overlook the fact that Fabricius first described his 

 species not in 1781 but in 1775, so that the proper title 

 now is M'unida rugom (Fabriciu.s). Absolute accuracy 

 in names is a thing very difhcult to attain. Miss 

 Rathbiin, who may be accounted ouJ' most learned 

 authoiity on the subject, in her " Decapod Crustaceans 

 of West Africa" assigns PalinuxtuK 'phoherm, Roche- 

 brune, 1883, to the genus PaHnoHiis, Bate. This might 

 seem a very natural thing to do, on the supposition 

 that Eochcbrune had accidentally mis-spelled the name. 

 But, as a matter of fact, Ba(<;'s genus dates from 1888. 

 It is itself a synonym of Ja.ws, Parker, 1883, but not 

 of Palitnixtiix, which was defined by A. Milne-Edwards 

 in 1880. To what genus Rochebrune's species really 

 belongs is none too certain. In the Entomostraca 

 Professor Lilljeborg upholds the genus Lynceus and the 

 family Lynceidje as valid among the Cladocera. Now 

 the truth is that O. F. Miiller's genus Lynceus was 

 restricted by Leach in 1816, who then distinguished 

 L. xphdericux from L. hracliyurus by placing the former in 

 a new genus designated ( hyihirux. The consequence is 

 that we have in the Cladocera a family Chydoridae, 

 while the phyllojjod family Limnetidje must assume the 

 name Lynceidje, since its single genus Limnetu, Loveu, 

 includes Miiller's L. hracliyurux, and must therefore 

 revert to the old generic name of Lynceus. 



In the late William Stimpson it cannot be doubted 

 that the United States possessed a carcinologist of great 

 merit. But his papers are not always easy to meet with, 

 and his descriptions of new species are often very brief 

 and unaccompanied by figures. Thus his work has from 

 time to time to undergo a process of rediscovery. Miss 

 Rathbun in her Brazilian paper describes and figures a 

 new species Glypturus hranneri, the genus of which is 

 nearly allied to Cdllianassn. This GJypturus was 

 instituted by Stimpson, and has evidently long beeh 

 overlooked till Miss Rathbun dredged it up from the 

 deep sea of forgott.en literature. Again, a very notable 

 crustacean, Hdpalncarcinus iiiarsiipinhs, was briefly 

 described by Stimpson in 1859. This, it is true, has 

 not escaped the attention of subsequent observers, 

 though they have been more concerned with its habits 

 than its structure. Dr. Caiman's paper in the Linnean 

 Transactions is the fii'st to bestow upon it accurate 

 description and adequate illustration. It is not very 

 awe-inspiring by its dimensions, the carapace being only 

 about a tenth of an inch in length and in breadth. But 

 though so small it is in more than one respect a great 

 curiosity. It forms gall-like excrescences in corals, 

 managing to keep open sufficient apertures for the 

 ingress and egress of water, but otherwise allowing itself 

 te be imprisoned by the growth of the coral around it. 

 Since none but females have been found thus walled 

 in, it is conjectured that both sexes are free till after 

 marriage, and that then the females alone become com- 

 pletely domesticated, like the women in Lord Lytton's 

 story of " The Coming Race, " who under similar circum- 

 stances contentedly shed their wings. Another genus. 

 Cryptochirus, Heller, furnishes a somewhat similar 

 species of crabs parasitic on corals, and the two genera 

 form Caiman's family Hapalocarcimd;e. This, he 

 decides, must be placed among the true Brachym-a, 

 although there are some perplexing resemblances to 

 some of the anomalous Macrura. 



The Cumacea (or Sympodaf). with which the 

 admirable third volume of Sars's Crustacea of Norway 

 is wliolly concerned, have not as yet yielded any 

 parasitic or commensal species, unless Nannnstacux 

 tiiK/iiicii/atit-^, Bate, found in the nest of the mollusc 



Ptilchogaster formoaiis (A. Milue-Edwards). A deep sea Galatlieid. 

 Alter K Ij. Bouvier. 



J^ima hiavs, may be considered an exception. The 

 Isopoda, on the other hand, have shown extreme 

 partiality for the labour-saving expedient of living on 

 their iieighboiu's. M. Jules Bonnier devotes a large and 

 valuable volume to that section of them which are 

 commonly known as bopyrids.| These, in their attach- 

 ment to other cinistaceans, develop many eccentric 

 forms. They pass through strange metamorphoses. One 

 division exhibits the character, ever remarkable though 

 not unique, by which the same individual is first a male 

 and then a female. In another division, M Boniii'r 

 inclines to believe that, while the larvae ai-e potentially 

 of either sex, the one which first obtains a good 



f For this change of name see Willev's "Zoological Results," 

 Part 5, p. 609. 



% " Contributions a retiidc des Epicarides les Bopyridie." Par 

 Jules Bonuici'. Travaux ile la Station Zoologique de Wimereux. 

 ■Vol. 8, 4tc>, 39(5 pages, U plates, [lortrait. (Paris, 19(X>.) 



