518 BET. T. B. B. STEBBTNG ON CBUSTACEANS [May 22, 



None the less, the specimens, in ample variety, which have rewarded 

 Mr. Vallentin's assiduous and systematic researches, serve to throw 

 new and much needed light on many interesting questions. At least 

 in the single group of the Malacostraca I have found so much to 

 say on a dozen species, of which only one is new, that the discussion 

 and description of numerous other species must be left over to some 

 future opportunity. It can scarcely be regarded as a reproach to 

 the earlier naturalists that they bad not prophetic eyes to make them 

 acquainted with the requirements of modern classification. We 

 are perhaps industriously preparing equivalent stumbling-blocks 

 for a future age, which possibly will only care to distinguish species 

 by the internal structure as seen working in the living animal under 

 the Eontgen rays. But for the difficulty of identifying forms 

 described by our predecessors, we ought not to lay all the blame on 

 the imperfection of the original accounts. It should be shared by 

 the naturalists who sometimes in a long succession are content 

 to quote the name of a species, without using the means at their 

 disposal of making it thoroughly well-known. There is a sort of 

 superstition that a new species is worth publishing, but that to 

 deal with one to which some other person's name and some ancient 

 date is attached, is a poor affair, stale and unprofitable. 



There are indeed some specimens in Mr. Vallentin's collection 

 to which these remarks will not apply, such as Serolis paradoxa 

 (Fabricius), re-described by Beddard in his ' Challenger ' Beport on 

 the Isopoda. Among the Amphipoda there is the well-marked 

 Talorchestia scutigerula (Dana), and there is Dana's Iphimedia 

 nodosa, a beautiful species, easily identified with Dana's account 

 specifically, though the genus remained doubtful till a specimen 

 was available for dissection. These are mentioned to indicate that 

 the interest of the specimens gathered is by no means exhausted 

 n the present paper. 



BBACHTUEA. 



Cyclometopa. 



Bam. Atelecyclid^;. 



1893. Atelecyclidce, Ortmann, Zool. Jahrb. vol. vii. p. 421. 



1896. Atelecyclidce, Ortmann, Zool. Jahrb. vol. ix. p. 444. 



1899. Atelecydince (subfam. of Cancridae), Alcock, J. Asiat. 

 Boc. Bengal, vol. lxviii. pt. 2, p. 96. 



Ortmann defines this family as follows : — " Inner antennae 

 longitudinal. Outer antenna? occupying the interior hiatus of 

 the orbits, their second joint cylindrical, just reaching the front, 

 the third joint only a little smaller ; flageilum hairy. Cephalo- 

 thoi'ax rounded, not widened, antero-lateral margin at least as long 

 as the postero-lateral." 



He places it among the Cancrini, his secoud subsection of the 

 Cyclometopa, which in his system form the second section of the 

 Cancroidea, these latter being the second subdivision of the 



