160 REPORT— 1880. 



Second Report of the Gom7)iittee, consisting of Mr. C, Spence Bate 

 and Mr. J. Brooking Kowe, appointed for the purpose of explor- 

 ing the Marine Zoology of South Devon. 



We beg to report tliat we liave had a series of dredgings, &c., from various 

 parts of the coast of Devon and Cornwall, selecting more especially those 

 localities that have been hitherto little explored, or which previous re- 

 search has shown to be places of interest for the objects that have been 

 found. 



From off the Dudman we have received many animals, which, although 

 not new, yet have been considered as being among the rarer of our British 

 Crustacea. Among them are Polybius henslowii, and a macrura that is new 

 to the coast, if not an undescribed species. It evidently belongs to the 

 genus Nephropsis. Nephropsis stewarti was taken by Mr. Wood-Mason in 

 the Indian Seas at a depth of 300 fathoms ; another species has been 

 taken during the Challenger Expedition at 700 fathoms, south of New 

 Guinea ; and another at 800, from off Bermuda : N. Atlantic. All these 

 are remarkable for the depth at which they were taken, as well as for the 

 rudimentary or depauperised condition of the eye-stalks ; whereas the 

 British form was taken floating on the surface of the sea, and has large 

 and well-developed eyes. 



The resemblance of all four species is very close, and the distinction 

 of one from the other is dependent chiefly upon the modified forms of 

 more or less important parts. 



Nephropsis cornubiensis (new species). 



We look upon the discovery with considerable interest, as it bears a near 

 resemblance to the preserved fossil remains of Hoploparia belli, as figured 

 by Woodward in his table of fossil Crustacea. 



If we compare our newly-found form with Nephrops norvegicus of the 

 Northern Ocean, we shall find many points of similarity and many also 

 of definite separation — the latter so strong that were we assured that iV^e- 

 phropsis cornubiensis, the name by which we provisionally intend to recog- 

 nise the newly-found species, were an adult or mature form, we should 

 not hesitate to accept it as a distinct species. But as we know so 

 little of the young of any of the macrura after they have passed the earliest 

 forms in which they first appear, we are induced to believe it may be no 

 . other than an immature condition of Nephrops. If this be the case then 

 all the species of the genus Nephropsis (Wood-Mason) must be recognised 

 as in the same position, and probably the fossil Hoploparia also. There are 

 conditions that make one hesitate to affirm this too hastily, and among 

 these are the facts that, in the localities where Nephropsis has been taken, 

 Nephrops has not been recorded. There has been no instance of Nephrops 

 having been taken in the English Channel, or anywhere south of the 



