EUPAGTJIUTS. 545 



explosion capsule and figures various stages in its 

 development.* 



Female System. 



The Ovaries, like the testes, are situated in the 

 abdomen, their ducts passing forwards into the thorax to 

 open on the coxa of the third walking leg. They are also 

 quite separate, and although the oviducts are very close 

 to each other, they are never connected, a condition 

 which seems to be uncommon but not unique in the 

 Decapoda. In a mature specimen the ovaries take up a 

 large part of the abdomen, both right and left gonads 

 extending throughout its length. They are irregularly 

 disposed, the left organ lying above its fellow at the 

 anterior end, and, more posteriorly, on the right side 

 of it, 



Both organs are sausage-shaped bags of a deep 

 purple colour in the living specimen. They present a 

 granulated appearance when mature and the separate ova 

 can be readily distinguished, but when spent they shrink 

 to a fifth of their normal size, and are then a pale reddish 

 colour. The oviducts are simply anterior prolongations 

 of the ovaries. They arise without any very definite 

 break and pass to the opening to the exterior without any 

 convolution whatever. The internal structure of the 

 ovary is not essentially different from that found in other 

 Decapods. 



The young eggs arise from a narrow band of 

 epithelial tissue on the inner side of the ovary, extending 

 its entire length. Although it is typically peripheral in 

 position, in a mature ovary the crowding of the large 

 eggs constricts its base and forces it to occupy a more 



* Retzius. Biolog. Untersuchu-ngen, Neue Folge, XIV. 



