82 CYAMID^E. 



canal small portions of the skin of the whale are found 

 in it, and on removing the Cyamus from the whale, the 

 epidermis, whence it is taken, is found to have been 

 gnawed off. 



The eggs of the Cyami are spherical, agglomerated, 

 and of a yellowish-white colour : they are deposited in 

 the ventral pouch, which is formed of thin mem- 

 branous plates, ciliated along the margin, and here the 

 young are hatched and carried until they are fully 

 developed. Whilst the eggs remain in the incubatory 

 pouch, the female detaches herself from her companions, 

 rejoining them when she had got rid of her young brood. 

 The young ones are complete in all their parts ; the head, 

 however, is proportionally of an enlarged size, the bran- 

 chiae globular, the anterior pair of legs not much smaller 

 than the following, and the antennae short. There ap- 

 pears, according to M. Roussel de Vauzeme, considerable 

 difference in the treatment of the young brood by their 

 parents. The females of C. ovalis arrange themselves 

 side by side on the tubercles of the head of the whale, 

 covering their young with their bodies, which form 

 strong shields for their protection. In C. gracilis, on the 

 contrary, the females and males, as well as young, are 

 mixed together, whilst the young of C. erraticus are found 

 isolated and fixed on the different parts of the body 

 where they had been left by their parents ; but in ac- 

 cordance with their future mode of life, M. Roussel 

 gives a curious instance of the effect of the distinction of 

 habits in the different species of this genus : in answer 

 to an inquiry by Messrs. Audouin and Milne Edwards, 

 as to whether Cyamis gracilis might not be the young 

 state of C. ovalis, M. Roussel relied on the different 

 habits and colour, as well as the particular form of the 



