38 Mr. G. Hodge on the Development of a Species of Pycnogon. 
nogon (fig. 4), with only four legs, it is true, but those members 
are of surprising length, and serve the purpose, I apprehend, of 
attaching the several larvee to each other and to the sac contain- 
ing them. 
Having, therefore, seen the form and apparent principle of 
development of the ova from a mere mass of granules up to a 
period not far from that at which they would burst their bonds 
and enter upon a different life, we now come to the most difficult 
question—How does the young Pycnogon gain access to the 
Coryne? For the actual indisputable answer to this I am afraid 
we must patiently wait; at present, we can but surmise and 
guess at the process. I may perhaps be allowed to record my 
opinion ; right or wrong, future results must settle. We have 
seen that the young Pyenogon, at the most mature stage at 
which I have observed it attached to the female, possesses a 
rostrum, a well-developed pair of foot-jaws (being in fact the 
most perfectly organized portion of the animal at this stage), 
and four rudimentary legs, terminated by very long filaments, 
which attach the young animal in an indirect way to the female. 
From the appearance of the outer membrane investing the little 
animal, and the rudimentary character of the legs, I expect a 
moult would shortly take place, and the animal would then en- 
tirely free itself from the investing skin and legs, with their 
attached filaments, being then of a globular form, with a pair of 
foot-jaws anda short rostrum. At this stage of the development 
the little animals become free, and here we lose all trace of them 
as connected with the adult Pyenogon; we should naturally expect 
that there was- little chance of ever again falling in with them 
in their young state, in consequence of their minute size at this 
period (;1, to 4, inch across); and doubtless many observers 
have lost them at this stage. I imagine they are carried by the 
waves into pools, similar to that before alluded to, and contain- 
ing a quantity of Coryne. The young animal would naturally 
cling to any fixed support, and, it may be, progress in some 
peculiar manner, and thus reach the polypes, or else the tenta- 
cles reach it, and shortly afterwards it is conveyed to the oral 
orifice of the Zoophyte, and being engulphed, is again lost to us, 
as, once in the Coryne, it becomes the food of that animal, and 
we cannot doubt that it possesses some means of digesting and 
assimilating such particles of matter, vegetable or animal, as 
may serve as nutriment. The young Pyecnogon, having been 
received into the cvenosare of the Zoophyte, must necessarily 
undergo the process of digestion and consequent dissolution : 
but in this particular case we find the ordinary rule does not 
hold; for the young Pycnogon is found whole and undergoing 
development within the polypary: if it has passed in by the 
