222 A HISTORY OF RECENT CRUSTACEA 



was tte subject of a monograph by Kroyer in 1856, and 

 the interest of the subject seems still very far from being 

 exhausted. 



Sciacdris, ' the shadow shrimp,' is interesting as having 

 a telson which ends in ' two lateral uniarticulate appen- 

 dages,' but it is doubtfully founded on three specimens 

 from the Pacific, none of which is adult, and none of which 

 exceeds by more than a hair's breadth a sixth of an inch 

 in length. 



Acetes indicus was described by Milne-Edwards in 

 1830, the type-specimens having been taken at the mouth 

 of the Ganges. According to Spence Bate, these are the 

 only specimens known, so that some one must be respon- 

 sible for a wrong date when he says that with them in the 

 Paris Museum ' was a note stating that they were taken 

 in 1852 from a large fish " 21 feet in length and 25 

 broad " (Bicerobates eroogoodoo) ; its stomach was filled 

 with myriads of these little crustaceans, which were 

 carried away in bucketfuls by the fishermen, and thou- 

 sands were left scattered about the shore.' As the 

 crustacean is only an inch long, the above-mentioned fish, 

 otherwise known as the Ox-ray, or Sea-devil, which may 

 attain the weight of a ton. and has a mouth large enough 

 to swallow a man, would no doubt find room for a shoal of 

 these little shrimps. The Ox-ray occurs in the Mediter- 

 ranean, and might well be the ' great fish ' referred to in 

 the book of Jonah. 



Leucifer is without branchi^ ; it has the two anterior 

 pairs of trunk-legs without chelae, and the chelae of the 

 third pair imperfect ; the ova are carried beneath the 

 trunk, but apparently without any special means of attach- 

 ment. The genus is widely distributed over the tropical and 

 sub-tropical waters of the Atlantic and Pacific, but is sup- 

 posed to be limited to the two long known species, 

 Leucifer typus (Vaughan Thompson) and Leucifer Bey- 

 naudii, Milne-Edwards. It has been made the subject 

 of an elaborate study by Professor Brooks. Alter the 

 Nauplius and Zoea stages, the young appear to go through 

 transformations corresponding with those of Sergestes. 



J M 



