1898.] DB. BASHFORD DEAN ON PAL.E08P0NDTLTJS GUNNI. 343 



have been mounted with Canada balsam on card, and to clean 

 them so as to really determine the form of the coxal fossettes 

 would perhaps be only unsatisfactory. It is a distinct-looking 

 species, and when found in the same or neighbouring islands ought 

 to be recognized. 



[SCTMNUS PHLCETJS.] 



Scymnus phlceus, Muls, Spec. Col. Trim, secur. p. 983 ; Crotch, 

 Eev. Cocc. p. 271. 



ffab. West Indies {Chevrolat). 



The type of this is not in Crotch's collection ; a single example 

 representing it is marked " phloeus ?," and is from Caracas, but is 

 valueless, being in miserable condition, and does not agree with 

 Mulsant's description. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXVII. Figs. 6, U, & 12. 



Figs. 6, 6 a. Cryptognatha melanura, p. 341. 



11, 11a. Hapalips ffrotivellei, cJ, p. 334. 



12. Hapalips grouvellei, f. 



4. Eemarks on the Affinities of Palaospondylus gunni. In 

 reply to Dr. R. H. Traquair. By Dr. Bashford 



Dean ^. 



[Keceived March 12, 1898.] 



Whether Palceospondylus is to be accepted by zoologists as 

 a Devonian hag-fish is a question of singular interest. For all 

 views as to the kinships and descent of the Marsipobranchs, the 

 outcome of widely-spread morphological and ontogenetic studies, 

 must stand the test of this historic evidence. Thus, if Palceo- 

 spondylus becomes the landmark in the descent of Marsipobranchs, 

 this line must obviously have been both as ancient and as inde- 

 pendent as those of other fish-like vertebrates. 



But the evidence that Palceospondylus is a Cyclostome has yet to 

 be satisfactorily furnished. Many of its accurately determined 

 structures are distinctly unlike those of myxinoids or petromyzonts ; 

 while those features which appear at first sight cyclostomian occur 

 also in other fish-like forms, and in the mouth, nasal region 

 especially, may even in part be due to the imperfect preservation 

 of the fossil. These objections, not unduly critical in view of the 

 importance of the subject, become all the more formidable in view 

 of the fact that paired fins may have been present. 



The latter condition was suggested by the present writer, on the 

 evidence of a specimen of Palceospondylun in the geological museum 

 of Columbia University, presenting a series of transverse ray- 

 shaped markings, which were interpreted as probably the basal 

 supports of paired fins. The brief paper ^ in which the specimen 



1 Commimicated by A. Smith Woodward, F.Z.S. (See P. Z. S. 1897, p. 314.) 

 = Trans. New York Acad. Sci. vol. xv. 1896, pp. 101-104, pi. v. 



