TPANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. 755 



the tables of Europe with food from the earliest civilisation until now, and has 

 been known to scientific students since the days of Aristotle, has not its life history- 

 known to us, it cannot be a matter of surprise that time is yet required to obtain 

 the many links that are necessary to complete our knowledge of the successive 

 stages of life upon the earth ? 



The spiny lobster, known to fishermen on the coasts of Devon and Cornwall 

 as the crawfish, the Palinurus vulgaris of naturalists, is common all around the 

 shores of Europe, and abundant at the entrance of the English Channel, where 

 as many as fifty or sixty may be captured by a single fisherman in one nio-ht. 

 With this abundance it is remarkable that two or three specimens only of the 

 young in the phyllosoma form have ever been procured off the coast. 



This species is represented in the southern hemisphere by Palinurus LallandU, 

 which ranges from the islands of Tristan d'Acunah in mid-ocean to the Cape of 

 Good Hope, while P. Edwardsii exists around the coasts from the Cape of Good 

 Hope to New Zealand. Another species (P. frontalis) exists off the western coast 

 of South America. Palinurus longimanus belongs to the West Indies. P. trigonus 

 has been taken at Japan, and another, which I think will ultimately be classified 

 as being generically separate, P. hugelii, has been taken in the Indian Ocean. 



Besides these are others only separated by definitions that have been appreciated 

 by the more analytical research of modern investigators. 



They consist of many species that are distinguishable from the preceding by 

 the long and slender form of their first pair of antennae. This the late Dr. Gray 

 identified by the name of Panulirus. The latter form embraces a large number of 

 known species ; their localities are more distributed, but appear most generally to be 

 confined to the seas of the tropical or warmest latitudes. 



Three of these inhabit the Chinese and Japanese waters ; three inhabit the 

 Indian Seas ; four belong to the West Indies ; one has been found ofi' the coast of 

 California, and two have been procured from the Islands in the Pacific. 



In point of geological time, the family to which these genera belong ranges 

 from the Lias and lithographic limestones of England and Germany, in both of 

 which it is represented by the solitary species Palinurina longipes of Minster. 



The genus Ibaccus and its near allies Scyllarus, Therms, Arctus, &c, differ 

 from the Palinurince in having a generally flattened or depressed appearance, and 

 in the second pair of antenna?, which, instead of being long, robust, and rigid, 

 capable of being used as weapons of offence, are short, flat, and leaf-like. 



Most of these genera inhabit the warmer zones. Ibaccus Peronii has been taken 

 as far south as Australia, but the other species appear to be located within the 

 tropics. 



One species of the genus Scyllarus has been taken as far north as Japan, or 

 latitude 40° north. 



A species of the closely allied genus Arctus, though a tropical form, has been 

 found as far north as the 50° of latitude, being common off the French coast, 

 along the English Channel and occasionally off the shores of Devon and Cornwall, 

 while species mere or less distinct have been found on the eastern shores of Asia 

 and in the eastern Archipelago, as well as near the Canary and Cape Verde Islands 

 in the Atlantic. 



Not very distant in structural features are the deep-sea genera that belong to 

 the family of Polychelidte, which bear a common general appearance and close 

 anatomical relation to that of the fossil form of Eryon, from the lithographic 

 limestones of Bavaria and the Lias of England. 



Polycheles, Willemcesia, and their congeners, are inhabitants of the deepest parts 

 of the ocean that have been explored with the dredge, and there is little doubt but 

 that they have been brought up from the bottom of the sea. 



The largest specimens have been taken from the greatest depth. 



Willemcesia leptodactyla has been taken at 1,900 fathoms, or rather more than 

 two miles in depth in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. 



The closely allied genus Penticheles, which is represented by six species that 

 differ from each other in no very remarkable degree in their external features, 

 ranges from 120 to 1,070 fathoms in depth, and is scattered over a large area. 



3 c 2 



