TRANSPARENT CRUSTACEANS. 517 



hollow, transparent bodies of the Beroe and other Medusae, 

 but whether the Phronima employs these Acalephce as 

 canoes to sail about in, or whether it lives parasitic on their 

 bodies, or feeds on the animalcules contained in them, I 

 am unable to determine. The Rhabdosoma armatwn 

 (Adams and White) had been hitherto found only in the 

 sea between Ainboyna and Van Dieman's land. The 

 head of this extraordinary Crustacean is terminated by a 

 snout or beak nearly as long as the body, and the tail is 

 furnished with three stylets as long as the muzzle, which, 

 added to its elongated form and enormous eyes, makes it 

 look like some imaginary fabrication, rather than a normal 

 production of Nature. It swims by suddenly straighten- 

 ing its stick-like body when in a bent position, and moves 

 either backwards or forwards. It is sluggish in its mo- 

 tions compared with other Hyperiadts. Another genus is 

 allied to Vibilia (Milne Edwards,) but has a more slender 

 conformation, and wants the thickened and cylindrical 

 superior antennae ; the four last segments of the body, 

 moreover, are more elongated, and differ from the rest. 

 The Phyttosomata, with their foliaceous, transparent cara- 

 paces, and diaphanous members, and of which we have 

 observed one or two new species, move about like the 

 ghosts of Stomapods. They are apathetic and sluggish, 

 notwithstanding their eyes being well-developed, and 

 their organization pretty complex, and in calm weather 

 may be taken with a net in large numbers floating on the 

 surface of the sea. Despite the fifteen species enumerated 

 by Edwards, those described by M. Guerin in the Voyage 

 de la Coquille and Mag. de Zool. for 1833, and those that 

 exist in the British Museum, there still remains much to 



