14 ORCHESTI1DJE. 



first appears in the year 1802, both in the third volume of 

 Latreille's " Histoire generale des Crustaces et Insectes," 

 and in the second volume of Bosc's " Hist. nat. des 

 Crustaces," the latter writer giving Latreille the credit 

 of the invention. This must be borne in mind, because 

 Latreille, in his "Genera Crust, et Ins.," vol. i., 1806, 

 refers the genus Talitrus to Bosc as its author. In the 

 last-mentioned work we find the genus, according to the 

 views of its founder, to be as extensive as our family Or- 

 chestiidae (which it would consequently have been more 

 correct to have named, after the present genus, Talitridse), 

 embracing the whole of the saltatorial species. Subse- 

 quently Leach separated the species with the first pair of 

 legs cheliferous under the name of Orchestia. In this 

 he has been followed by all subsequent writers. Milne- 

 Edwards, Dana, Desmarest, and others, however, intro- 

 duced into this genus those species which have the second 

 pair of hands as large as in the males of Orchestia ; but 

 Nicolet* has very justly separated them from Talitrus, 

 under the generic name of Orchestoidea. Brandt f has 

 likewise done the same, but, without being aware of 

 what Nicolet had proposed, has given to the same 

 genus the name of Megalorchestia, which Stimpson 

 has followed. Accepting this latter separation of the 

 species into two genera, Talitrus appears to be peculiar 

 to the European coasts and the southern shores of the 

 Mediterranean. The species T. brevicornis of Edwards 

 and T. Novi-Zealandi<z of Dana, both from New Zealand, 

 have only been described from females, and since the 

 female specimens belonging to the genus Orchestoidea 

 resemble Talitri, it is not improbable that these may 

 likewise be the females of Orchestoidea. 



* In Gay's "Hist. phys. de Chile," iii. p. 229. Crust, pi. 2. fig. 4. 

 f Bull. Acad. St. Petersbourg, 1851, ix., pp. 133, 310. 



