164 



GENUS LITHODES. 



which greatly resembles many of that group. Its relation 

 to these, however, is only one of analogy ; and Leach was 

 the first to point out the discrepancies. The glimpse which 

 he caught of its true affinities is embodied in the observa- 

 tion that, "in the form of its pedipalps and external 

 antennae, and in the position of the eyes, it approaches the 

 Macrourous Malacostraca." It is, however, to Dr. Milne 

 Edwards that we owe the full development of its relations, 

 and its natural location in a group intermediate between 

 the Brachyurous and the Macrourous forms, and in close 

 association with Homola. 



I have found it necessary to modify the generic charac- 

 ters previously given of this genus, founded as they were 

 upon the single species hitherto described. The posses- 

 sion of a second, discovered by Mr. Cuming on the eastern 

 coast of America, enables me to state that the membranous 

 condition of the abdomen is either merely a sexual, or 

 at most a specific distinction, as the specimen obtained 

 by Mr. Cuming, to which I have given the name of L. 

 Australis, is entirely covered with crustaceous matter. 



