GEXEEA UEOTHOE AND UEOTIIOIDES. 9 



telson is described in the Latin as " latins lanceolatum, usque ultra dimidium fissum," 

 and in the German as " cleft only to the middle, much longer than broad, running out 

 into two narrow points, each with a spinule and two setae." In the species of Urothoe 

 in general the telson is cleft much beyond the centre. 



In 1879 Sars described, under the name Urothoe albreviata, n. sp., a single specimen, 

 3 millim. in length, taken in the sea north-west of Finmark, lat. 71° 25' N., long. 

 15° 40'-5 E., from a depth of 620 fathoms. Of this in 1885 he gave a somewhat fuller 

 description and a figure. In the earlier account he distinguishes it from other species 

 by the abbreviate form of the body, the absence of eyes, and the rudimentary accessory 

 flagellum of the upper antennae ; in the later, " by its remarkably short and thickset 

 body, the peculiar form distinguishing the first pair of antennae, the absence of eyes, 

 and by the short last pair of caudal stylets." In point of fact these characters are not 

 of much service for the recognition of the species. The short and thickset body is not 

 the exception but the rule in this genus. In the young the eyes are also, as a rule, 

 very inconspicuous. "The first pair of antennae," according to Sars, "are rather 

 elongate, and unlike those in all other known species." Yet according to his descrip- 

 tion and figure of these organs they agree very well with the prevalent form, the 

 smallness of the flagellum in all probability only indicating that the specimen was a 

 veiy young one. Its diminutive size and the shortness of the last uropods are in accord 

 with this supposition. In the earlier account Sars states that the flagellum of the lower 

 antennae has four joints, just as Boeck does for his Urothoe norvegica; but in the later 

 account Sars omits all mention of this flagellum, only saying that these antennae from 

 their position are diflBcult to examine without dissection. The circumstance that the 

 almost rectangular corners of the third pleon-segment are not produced upwards is 

 probably mentioned as a point of distinction from Boeck's species, but, judging by 

 Boeck's figure, the upward production is wrongly attributed to that species itself. On 

 the whole, with our present information, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that 

 Urothoe alhreviata is the young of Urothoe norvegica, a deep-water form, of which 

 fuller and more definite details are still to be desired. 



In 1888 M. Chevreux described, under the name "Urothoe Poucheti, nov. sp.," a male 

 specimen taken at the surface, oflF Ponta Delgada, at the island of San Miguel, in the 

 Azores. " This species," he says, " while tolerably near to Urothoe elegans, Sp. Bate, 

 differs from it by its less obese form, the size and peculiar appearance of the eyes, and 

 above all by the first two pairs of uropods, which are more developed than in other 

 species of the genus." " The eyes prominent, very large, rounded, meeting one another 

 at the apex of the head," would naturally be a very distinctive character to any one 

 judging only by the published figures of species in this genus. It is, however, common 

 to the fully developed males in several species, and agrees closely with Costa's description 

 of the eyes in Egidia pulcheUa. The uropods, of which M. Chevreux has kindly sent 



VOL. XIII. — PAET I. No. 2. — January, 1891. c 



