SCHIOUTE AND MEINERT 351 



Serolis as well as of Gymothoa and Anilocr'a, witKout any 

 warning that so strange a characteristic does not neces- 

 sarily or even probably appertain to all the miscellaneous 

 assemblage. It has been suggested that something of the 

 same kind may occur in some of the Epicaridea. 



The Gymobhoidaj, after the exclusion of the five 

 families already characterised, are still a group of embar- 

 rassing size, including at least thirty genera, and about 

 four times as many species. The description of this single 

 family by Schiodte and Meinert occupies a volume larger 

 than the present. Twenty of the genera are instituted by 

 those authors. To say that they give a figure and de- 

 scription of every species would very inadequately express 

 the scope of their labour. It must be added that the 

 descriptions and figures are repeatedly double, or triple,- 

 and sometimes fourfold. This was necessary on account 

 of the differences already alluded to between the forma 

 assumed by the same animal at different periods of life. 

 The symmetry of the young is often exchanged in the 

 adult for a more or less distorted shape due to its residence, 

 these animals being found in the mouths, and on or within 

 the skin, and about the fiiis of various fishes, in the mouths 

 of squids, and in other strange situations. It does not 

 seem proper to follow Schiodte and Meinert in their further 

 subdivision of this family into three families, which they 

 name Anilocridse, Saophridae, and Cymothoidffi, but, what- 

 ever view may be taken on such a matter of detail, their 

 work will be found indispensable to a student of this group. 

 Even with all the assistance it gives he will not always 

 find the task of identifying his specimens too easy. Under 

 the circumstances it is useless to compress into these pages 

 any brief synopsis of the numerous genera, although one 

 or two of them may receive a passing mention. 



Nerocila, Leach, 1818, contains more than thirty 

 species. The eyes, which are manifest in the larval and 

 young forms, in the adults as a rule gradually disappear, 

 this being obviously in connection with the assumption of 

 a parasir.ic life, which led Latreille to name the genus 

 lehthyopMlus, ' a lover of fish.' Nerocila depressa, Milne- 

 26 



