Miscellanea Zoologlca. 381 



lowish or greyish colour, pellucid, the legs roughish and sparingly 

 hispid with a spine at the distal end of the femoral joints : First 

 segment produced into a sort of neck dilated at the apex where it 

 supports the rostrum, mandibles and palpi ; the rostrum cylindrical, 

 as long as the neck, divided beneath with a mesial line ; mandibles 

 biarticulate, the first joint reaching beyond the rostrum, the second 

 short, hispid on the external side, and armed with two claws ; palpi 

 filiform, 4-jointed, the two basal joints elongated, the others short 

 and hispid : oculiferous tubercle distinct : legs four times the length 

 of the body, almost filiform and equal, 1st and 3d joints of the 

 coxae considerably shorter than the second, which is incrassated dis- 

 tally, the thigh and first joint of the tibiee elongated and equal, the 

 second tibial joint still longer, first tarsal joint half as long as the 

 second, which is hispid and spinous on the inner surface and armed 

 with three moveable sharp claws, of which two are merely auxiliary : 

 oviferous legs filiform, long, the two basal joints short, the third 

 and fourth twice as long, the fifth shorter, equal to the sixth, which 

 is rather longer than the three next, which are armed below with a 

 double series of spines, the terminal joint forming a claw : abdomen 

 small, cylindric or slightly tapered posteriorly. 



After his description of this animal Linnaeus adds — " Mirum 

 tarn parvum corpus regere tarn magnos pedes/' Fabricius says it 

 has the power of reproducing its lost members. "Mutilatur etiam 

 in libertate sua, redintegrandum tamen : vidi enim, in quo pedes 

 brevissimi juxta longiores enascentes, velut in asteriis, cancris aliis- 

 que redintegratis," 



It may be considered doubtful whether the species figured by us 

 is identical with the Phalangium aculeatum of Montagu, or the 

 Nymphon gracile of Leach, for neither their descriptions nor figures 

 are sufficient to determine the question, and in this uncertainty I 

 have thought it advisable to bring them all together as synony- 

 mous, until further inquiries shall shew that we possess more native 

 species, which is most probable. Leach, in his character of the 

 genus, says the palpi are 6-jointed, and the claws simple, while the 

 former appear to be only 4-jointed in our species, and the latter 

 have accessory claws. Some authors have placed Montagu's Ph. 

 aculeatum in the genus Phoxichilus, an error which has arisen from 

 their consulting the figure, which is defective, without reference to 

 the description. 



The Nymphon grossipes of Latreille and Savigny, (Mem. ii. p. 

 Ill : pi. 5, fig. 2.) is altogether distinct from our N. gracile; and 

 may be known by the joints of the mandibles being nearly equal in 



