PACKARD.] PHYLLOPODS OF NORTH AMERICA. 341 



and B. ferox^ which, as we have previously explained, are true BrancJii 

 nectw, and also ChirocepJialus diaphanus. In 1870 Verrill eliminated his 

 Branchipus vernalis, described in 1869 under the name Eubranchipus 

 vernalis, and also remarked that " this genus appears to include Bran- 

 chipus spinosus Edwards, from a salt lake near Odessa, but the latter 

 appears to have no tooth at the base of the second joint of the claspers." 

 Had Professor Verrill had specimens for examination he would un- 

 doubtedly have seen that this species was a Branehinecta. 



I do not see good reasons for separating our common American spe- 

 cies generically from the common European B. stagnalis and the less 

 known more recently described species B. grubei. Comparing B. ver- 

 nalis with B. stagnalis, the frontal lobes of stagnalis are in position ho- 

 mologous with the much more complicated ones of B. vernalis and the 

 lobulated, highly complicated ones of B. grubei. In both species the 2d 

 joint of the claspers is thick, in section triangular, but much slenderer 

 than the very thick 1st or basal joint.* 



The ovisac and penis, as well as the caudal appendages and the gen- 

 eral form of the body, are the same. B. grubei Dybowsky, which I have 

 received from Breslau through Professor Siebold, is a genuine Branchi- 

 pus ; the large, deeply lobulated frontal appendages, a sexual character 

 peculiar to the males, are only exaggerations of those of B. vernalis. 

 It has similar stout claspers ; the ovisac of the female differs from the 

 two other species examined, in being a little longer and slender, but 

 still it retains the short, broad, bottle-shaped form so characteristic of 

 the genus, while the cau'dal stylets are the same. 



To this genus also undoubtedly belongs Fischer's Branchipus biro- 

 stratus (see Middendorfs Eeise, p. 152, PI. VII, figs. 12-16, from Char- 

 kow, Russia). As regards the frontal appendages, this species is inter- 

 mediate between B. vernalis and B. grubei, as those organs are short, 

 triangular, but little longer than in B. vernalis, but deeply, acutely 

 lobed at the end. 



The frontal appendages in this genus and in Chirocephalus are possi- 

 bly the homologues of the knob-like projections near the base of the 2d 

 antennae of Art^mia and Branehinecta, but the frontal appendages are 

 situated nearer the base of the 1st joint, and are more dorsal. On the 

 outer side of each appendage there are transverse lines reaching to the 

 edge between the tubercles, giving a segmented appearance to the outer 

 half of the appendage. Under a ToUes' i B eyepiece the tubercles are 

 seen to be filled with nucleated oval cells like those scattered through 

 the meshes of the fine Inuscles ^\hich ramify throughout the middle re- 

 gion of the appendage. The cells are not nerve-cells, and I do not 

 regard these organs as sensory, but probably auxiliary to the clasi^ers, 

 and possibly of use in holding the female. 



Synopsis of the species. 

 • 

 Frontal appendages short, finely lobed ; 2d joint long and 



pointed B. vernalis. 



Frontal appendages very long, with six long finger -like processes on 

 each side ; 2d joint of male clasper half as long as in B. vernalis, and 

 square at tip B. serratus. 



* Gerstaecker makes a singular blunder in copying Dybowski's figure in Bronn's 

 Classen unci Ordnungen der Thierreich, Bd. v, abd. 1, Taf. xxix, figs. 2,4, from Dy- 

 bowski in Arcliiv. fiir Naturgescbichte xxvi, 1. The male and miiguified head of the 

 male oi JJraiichrnecta pnludosa from Greenland, correctly figured by Dybowski as such, 

 are by. Gerstaecker in his exx>lanatiou of Taf. xxix called the female of Branchipus 

 grubti. 



