332 ASELLID^. 



wards, rounded and entire, resembling the minute ap- 

 pendages existing on the telson of some Stomapod 

 Crustacea. The outer pajr of branchial plates shut 

 together in the form of a flattened pear, divided down 

 the centre : they cover the greater part of the underside 

 of the tail. 



We have but little hesitation in classifying this genus 

 with those that Professor Sars and his son have described 

 under the name of Isopoda Remagantia, and for which 

 Professor Lilljeborg has established the family of Mun- 

 nopsidce, and which are pointed out by Professor Kroyer 

 as having an affinity with the genus Munna. The typical 

 form of the three posterior pairs of pereiopoda are 

 developed into paddle-shaped organs, from which pecu- 

 liarity the name of the group was given by Sars. But 

 in the progress of his observations he found that others, 

 assimilating to the type in most points, had not the 

 three hinder pairs of legs so developed : hence, in his 

 description of Macrostyles spinifera, he writes of these 

 appendages as " Eorum structura ad natandum parum 

 apta esse videtur " (vide Zoological Record, 1864, p. 295). 



The family is also described as containing animals 

 having no eyes ; but we know that subterranean Crustacea 

 are generally so, as agreeing with their peculiar habits ; 

 but even in these, as far as our experience instructs, 

 the organs are preserved, but reduced to a rudimentary 

 condition. In the nearly-allied genus Munna, the eyes 

 are large, and placed at the extremity of a fixed process. 

 But in the other Asellidae the organs are less prominent ; 

 and in all other respects we see nothing that can induce 

 us, with the information that we possess, to separate 

 this genus (and we believe also the Isopoda Remagantid) 

 from the Asellidae. 



