THE ISOPOD GENUS OTJROZEUKTES. 8B7 



Tlicy also refer to one in the" Museo Godeffroyana " at Ham- 

 burg, said to be from Meridional America ; but the locality is 

 here doubtful. 



To this list I can only add that there are two dried specimens 

 in the British Museum, which show no special cliaracters, and 

 should doubtless be included in the original species. I have 

 been able to examine them through the kindness of Professor 

 Jefirey Bell. 



In this paper I have no intention of discussing the question of 

 species, as I have no pretence to be a student of this particular 

 group. I may say perhaps that Messrs. Schiodte and Meinert's 

 two species differ fromi the original in little beside their smaller 

 size, which in a Crustacean is not very reliable ground for specific 

 distinction. Also in these cases, as in that of the Sydney 

 Museum, the narrowness of the abdominal region seems, at first 

 siglit, a point of importance ; but when one considers the greater 

 delicacy of all the posterior portions compared with the strong 

 thoracic rings, one can understand how easily such an appearance 

 may be produced in drying. My own opinion is that the 

 original example was very well preserved as a dried specimen, 

 and that the others only differ in the shrunk condition of their 

 tissues. 



The question of species, however, is of less importance than 

 that of the habit of this animal ; but unfortunately I have here 

 no further evidence to give. 



Probably the nearest living relative of OurozeuJctes is the 

 remarkable genus Ichthyoxenos described by Herklots *, and 

 more recently (in a paper to which Prof. Howes has kindly 

 called my attention) by Professor Max Weber t- This genus 

 lives entirely in special cavities in the integument of a fish 

 {Puntius maculatus, Bleeker) in the rivers of Java. It is less 

 specialized than OurozeuJctes in having the abdominal segments 

 free and the first abdominal appendage scarcely modified. 

 Moreover, it has not the thoracic limbs flattened ; and this I 

 take as an indication that it is entirely parasitic, whereas the 

 genus now under consideration has tlie power of living freely, 

 though doubtless parasitic at times. 



Taking the larval form into consideration, we may perhaps be 



* Herklots, Archives Neerlandaises, V., 1870. 



t Weber, ' Separat-Abdriu-k aus zoologisehe Ergebnisse einer Eeise in 

 Niederlandiscb Ost-Indien,' Band ii. Leiden, 1892. 



LINjS. .lOTJRK. — ZOOLOGY, VOL. XXV. 28 



