MICEOSCOPICAL STUDIES IN MARINE ZOOLOGY. 



BY JAMES HORNELL. 



Study VII. The Metamorphoses of the Mantis Shrimps 



or Squillid^e. 



Squilla Mantis. 



The Mantis Shrimps, the Squillidse, are among the least known 

 of the larger crustaceans found on our shores. Essentially a southern 

 type, the two species of this family that occur in British waters, have 

 been met with on the southern coast only, and if we were to judge 

 from the few captures reported, we should account them extremely 

 rare. In reality, one of the two, — Squilla desmarestii — is not 

 uncommon along the shallower shores of Jersey, but as it takes up 

 habitation in deep burrows among the roots of the sea-grass (Zostera) 

 in a zone never uncovered by the tide, one can understand how rare 

 in appearance it may be — how abundant in fact in some favourite 

 localities. On several occasions, immense numbers have been cast up 

 on the Jersey coast after great storms. Their homes in the Zostera 



