STOMA POD A. 81 



The Stomapoda are all marine Crustacea. Their favourite 

 habitat is in the intertropical latitudes, and they are not found 

 beyond the temperate zones. Of their habits we are totally 

 ignorant ; that those which are furnished with claws use them 

 in seizing, their prey, in the manner of those Orthoptera 

 called in Provence Pregadious or Mantes{\), we cannot 

 doubt. Hence their vulgar appellation of Sea- Mantis: they 

 are the Crangones and Crangines of the Greeks. According 

 to Risso they prefer sandy bottoms in deep water, and copu- 

 late in the spring. Other Stomapoda, those of our second 

 family, being less favoured with natatory appendages and 

 having a much flatter and more superficially extended body, 

 are generally found on the surface of the water, where they 

 move very slowly. We will divide the Stomapoda into two 

 families. 



FAMILY I. 



UNIPELTATA. 



In this family the shell consists of a single shield, of an 

 elongated quadrilateral form, usually widened and free behind, 

 covering the head, the antenna and eyes excepted which are 

 placed on a common anterior articulation, and at least the 

 first segments of the body. Its anterior extremity terminates 

 in a point or is preceded by a small plate with a similar end. 

 All the foot-jaws, the second of which are very large, and the 

 four anterior feet are closely approximated to the mouth on 

 two inferiorly converging lines, and have the form of claws 

 with a single finger or mobile and flexed hook. With the 

 exception of the second feet all these organs are furnished at 

 their external origin with a little pediculated vesicle. The 

 other six feet, at the base of whose third segment is a lateral 

 appendage, are linear, terminated by a brush, and simply na- 



(1) Some othei" analot^ous Orthoptera, such as the Phyllium, resemble leaves. 

 The I'hyllosomse, Crustacea of the same order, exhibit similar affinities. 

 Vol. III.— L 



