50 DR. R. V, WILLEMOES-SUHM ON SOME ATLANTIC 



pendage of the outer antenna is entirely wanting. The same thing is the case in a 

 crustacean recently described by Mr. Wood-Mason from deep water near the Andaman 

 Islands, which he calls Nephropsis Stewarti *. I am inclined to think that the crusta- 

 cean which we got near the Bermudas belongs to the same genus ; but as I have not 

 seen the plate which Mr. Mason has added to his original paper, I shall defer its descrip- 

 tion until we come back. 



Colour, and Mode of Life. 



A. zaleucus came up on the swabs of the dredge, together with the large chelae of 

 another, smaller specimen, the body of which was lost. The one we got had the red 

 colour of all deep-sea Crustacea. It lived on a bottom of globigerine ooze, evidently 

 frequented by a great many animals. Several sponges and seven echinoderms (Ophio- 

 musium, Luidia, Ar chaster, Astrogonium, Cidaris, and Echinus), a Planularia, Mopsea, 

 and an Isis, several Annelids and a Sipunculus, a Galathea, a Peneid, an Arcturus, and 

 the fine crustacean to which was given the name of Willemoesia crucifera — four Bryozoa, 

 a Dentalium, and many small shells — finally, a fish probably belonging to the genus 

 Ghauliodus, were got in the same place with this extraordinary Astacus. Unfortunately 

 our stay in the West Indies was only a very short one. The few hauls, however, which 

 we had near Sombrero Island and St. Thomas showed us that a great quantity of new 

 and probably also interesting animals live there in moderate depths (300-400 fathoms). 



VII. On Willemoesia, A DEEP-SEA DECAPOD ALLIED TO Eryon. 



(Plate XII. fig. 10, and Plate XIII.) 



In the " Notes from the Challenger," sent by Professor Wyville Thomson to ' Nature,' 

 two blind Crustacea have been described, both of which were found on our cruise from 

 Teneriffe to St. Thomas. The larger one of these remarkable animals was called by me 

 Deidamia leptodactyla, obtained on the 4th of March, by the dredge, in a most perfect state, 

 from a depth of 1900 fathoms, in lat. 21° 38' N., long. 44° 39' W. Another specimen 

 was caught in the trawl in lat. 35° 41' S., and long. 20° 55' W., about 400 miles W. of 

 Inaccessible Island (Tristan d'Acunha), from the same depth at which the first was got. 

 The second, smaller species, which I proposed to call D. crucifera, was got on the 15th of 

 March, close to Sombrero Island, West Indies, from a depth of 450 fathoms, and equally 

 well preserved. I shall now give a description of both of them, but especially of the 

 larger one, which may be considered the type of the genus, and of the smaller one as far 

 as it offers any differences of importance. 



The generic name Deidamia, however, must be dropped, as (according to Mr. Grote, 

 who has done me the honour of proposing for it the name Willemoesia) it was given 

 by Dr. Clemens in 1859 to a genus of North- American Sphingidse. 



1. Willemoesia leptodactyla. 



The body of this crayfish approaches in form closer to the well-known fossil Eryon 

 than any other crustacean known to me, the body being flattened above, and there being 



* " On Nephropsis Stewarti, a new Genus and Species of Macrurous Crustaceans," by James Wood-Mason, ' Annals 

 and Magazine of Natural History,' No. 67, July 1873. 



