300 BRITISH ENTOMOSTRACA. 



Genus Nicothoe.* 



NicoTHOE, M. Edwards and Audouin, Aun. Sc. Nat., ix, 34^5. 



— M. Edwards, Hist. Nat. Crust., iii, 480. 



— LafreiUe, Cuv. Regne Auim., iv, 201. 



— Burmeister, Nov. Act. Nat. Cur., xvii, 327. 



— Kroi/er^ Tidsskrift, i. 



— Rathke, Nov. Act. Nat. Cur., xx, 102. 



Character. — Two eyes. Antennae slender, niany- 

 jointed. Foot-jaws very small. Thorax enlarged laterally 

 into the form of two large, whig-shaped lobes. Feet four 

 pairs, two-branched, and jointed. Body articulated. 



Bibliographical Histort/. — MM. Audouin and M, 

 Edwards were the first who noticed the Nicothoe, and in 

 their memoir, published in 1S.26 in the 'Ann. Sc. Nat.,' 

 they give a lengthened account of the genus. They seem 

 to have been struck with the peculiar appearance of these 

 singular creatures, and evidently had some difficulty in' 

 ascertaining their true position. Seen from above, with 

 their large, wing-shaped, lateral expansions, they appeared 

 to them to belong to the Lerneadse. When reversed, and 

 exhibiting their jointed antennae and articulated feet, they 

 had a close resemblance to the Cyclopidse. " Except 

 that they have two eyes," they say, " we would not think 

 of separating them from these animals." 



Latreille, in his " History of the Crustacea," in Cuvier's 

 ' Regne Animal,' in 1829, places them at the end of the 

 Siphonostoma in his second division, the Lerneiformes, 

 as coming next to the LerneEe. 



M. Edwards afterwards adopted the same position for 

 the genus, in his ' Hist. Nat. Crust.,' and this arrange- 

 ment has, in like manner, been followed by later authors. 



Rathke is the latest writer who has noticed the Nicothoe, 

 and in his memoir in vol. xx of the ' Nova Acta,' he has 

 given us many details of the development of the young, 



* Nieotlioii, o)ic of the Harpies. 



