88 EEPORT— 1869. 



I think, therefore, that although step hy step we may arrive at the true 

 knowledge, yet the large amount of negative evidence, which is capable at 

 any day of being overthrown, must make us hesitate in accepting as a thing 

 proved the statement that Phyllosoma and the closely resembling larvae of 

 Palinurus are one and the same creature. 



The genus ScyUarus has now been so frequently captured on our coast, 

 that we must consider it not as a mere straggler, but as an old inhabitant of 

 the British seas. 



Mr. Cornish writes : — " Some years since I suggested to Prof. Bell, with 

 the first specimen that I took, that it was identical with the little lobster 

 described by Borlase (Nat. Hist. p. 274) as ' that fine Shrimp (Squilla lata, 

 Bondeletii) I found in Careg-KiUas, in Mount's Bay;' but he thought that 

 Squilla lata was the other ScyUarus, and not mine. I now beheve that I 

 was right and he was wrong. Looking at the rarity of the species in Mount's 

 Bay, it is more probable that Borlase's specimen and mine should be the 

 same species, than that they should be distinct." 



Borlase took his on Careg-Killas, in Mount's Bay. This name is lost ; but 

 it means " slate," or " killas-rock," and it was (fzc^e Borlase, Nat. Hist. p. 254) 

 " a ledge where loose stones could be turned over," near Penzance (p. 206). 



There are but two places in Mount's Bay which satisfy this description, 

 and the one nearest to the Doctor's residence is Long Rock, where the latest 

 specimen of ScyUarus was taken. 



Besides which. Pennant (vol. iv. p. 17, No. 23, Lobster) speaks of Squilla 

 lata, Eondeletii, as the size of the S^iny Lobster. Dr. Borlase speaks of his 

 specimen as " that fine shrimp." 



The specimen of which Mr. Cornish writes was captured alive, and, being 

 in fuU spawn, was sent on to me, with the hope that, should it arrive alive, 

 I might be able to hatch the ova, and so make out the hitherto undetermined 

 form of the young ScyUarus. Unfortunately the animal was dead when it 

 reached me that same evening. The ova were very abundant in quantity, 

 each being about ^^ of an inch in diameter, with an orange-coloured vitellus. 

 The embryo was in a very immature stage, so that little could be learned 

 from it as to the form or character of the larva when it quits the ovum. My 

 friend Dr. Andrew Dohrn, however, Avho has on the coast of Sicily been 

 giving his attention to this subject amongst others, informs me that the larva 

 of ScyUarus is identical with that of Palinurus, and consequently assumes the 

 form of Phyllosoma, 



Squilla. 



Several specimens of this genus have been recorded from the coasts of 

 Devon and Cornwall ; but the scarcity of their appearance induces us to 

 consider them rather as stragglers drifted from the Channel Islands than 

 inhabitants of our southern shores. Two other genera of closely allied 

 animals are occasionally taken in the same locality. These have been de- 

 scribed by Prof. Milne-Edwards, and figured under the respective names of 

 Alima and Squillerichihys ; specimens of both these have been taken during 

 the last summer, the former by Mr. Hay Lankester, and the latter by Mrs. 

 Collings of Serk. The former of these animals has much in its appearance 

 that is suggestive of an undeveloped condition ; but it was difficult to define 

 the parent stock ; it might be a young Squillerichtliys, or it might be a young 

 Squilla, from either of which it differs in having but two flageUa to the 

 anterior appendage, and in the absence of the five pairs of pereiopoda ; while 

 in Squilla and SquillerichtJiys there are three flagella to the anterior antenna3, 

 and all the pereiopoda are present. The general form, however, of Alima is 



