MELITA GLADIOSA. 347 



are about two- thirds of the entire length of the animal ; 

 while the inferior pair are not much more than half the 

 length of the superior, and furnished with a flagellum 

 which is scarcely more than half the length of the 

 peduncle. The first pair of legs have the hand small, 

 nearly oval, and furnished with a few fasciculi of hairs. 

 The second pair of legs have the hand very large, 

 broadly ovate ; the palm is convex, and unevenly ser- 

 rated towards the articulation with the finger, and formed 

 into a lateral depression or hollow towards the infe- 

 rior angle of the palm, into which the finger shuts ; the 

 latter is rather angulated near the articulation with the 

 hand, and scimitar-shaped, but terminates in a somewhat 

 sharper point than in M. obtusata or proxima. The ante 

 and penultimate pairs of pleopoda are short, not reach- 

 ing quite to the extremity of the peduncle of the last 

 pair, which are very long and very unequal in size. 



This species was originally founded upon a specimen 

 taken at Boulogne, preserved in the collection of the 

 Museum of the Jardin des Plantes. A second specimen 

 has, however, been since taken by us in Plymouth 

 Sound. 



We have a very strong conviction that this species is 

 identical with Gammarus podager of M. Edwards, which 

 is a true Melita. The specimen of this latter species, 

 preserved in the Museum at Paris, upon which M. 

 Edwards established the species, is imperfect, but one of 

 its second pair of hands is preserved, and which does not 

 appear to us to be in a normal condition ; but since 

 M. Edwards has made it the type of a species, we do not 

 feel warranted, without further observation, to do more 

 than suggest its probable relationship with the present 

 species. 



