s RIJKS MUSEUM VAN NATUURLIJKE HISTORIE — LEIDEN. 83 



collected together, perhaps at one and the same occasion, with about as 

 many specimens of Orchestia gammarellus. Other Dutch authors however 

 never have made mention of it, and even Hoek in his „Crustacea Neer- 

 landica" (Tijdschr. Ned. Dierk. Yer., ser. 2, v. 2, 1889) does not seem 

 to have been aware of any Orchestia different from those he included in 

 his list '). Ritzema Bos, however, in his „Bijdrage tot de kennis der 

 Crustacea Hedriophthalmata van Nederland en zijne kusten" (Groningen 

 1874) records one single specimen of „Orchestia mecliterranea Costa" found 

 by him on the shore of Rottum (p. 43) and he gives a description of 

 his specimen (the sex of which is not stated) on p. 22. As both sexes 

 are described I am unable to trace out whether this information is 

 original or simply transcribed from some text-book (i. e. Bate & West- 

 wood, British sessile-eyed Crustacea, which has been frequently used by 

 the author). One is struck, however, by the author's assertion, that the 

 palm margin of the second gnathopod of the male is destitute of any 

 tooth or spine, but probably it is intended to say that there is no 

 defining tooth at the proximal end of the palm margin, so that this 

 margin is not sharply marked off, as is the case in 0. gammarellus. So 

 there is some probability that this „0 mecliterranea" of Ritzema Bos in- 

 deed may have been Talorchestia brito 2 ). 



Delia Yalle, whose large work on the Amphipoda in the series „Fauna 

 und Flora des Golfes von Neapel" is unfortunately less useful to the 

 systematist, notwithstanding the enormous amount of work embodied 

 in it, by the author's throwing together, often without any comment 

 whatever, various names which represent different species, ranges (p. 498) 

 Talorchestia brito, Orchestia mediterranea and some other names along 

 with 0. chiliensis H. Milne-Edwards, a simplification of the matter which 

 cannot be justified by any tenable ground, as Stebbing has shown in his 

 treatment of the Amphipoda in the „Tierreich" (see p. 531 and 552). 



Another species of Talorchestia, T. cleshayesii Andouin, which seems 

 to be rather common all along our shores, is distinguished at first sight 

 from T. brito by its smaller size, longer inferior antennae, the flagellum 

 of which is shorter than the last joint of the peduncle, with about 20 



1) On p. 16 (of the separate copy) the author remarks, that he saw specimens of Orchestia 

 gammarellus (named by him 0. littorea Montagu), which were collected many years ago by 

 Herklots at Katwijk. These mast have been the very specimens among which I found Talorchestia 

 brito and it is difficult to understand how Hoek came to overlook them. 



2) There remains however a serious doubt about this probability, as the author ascribes to 

 0. mediterranea a flatly expanded mero- and carpopodite in the last pair of legs of the adult 

 male, a character which precisely occurs in the real 0. mediterranea as well as in 0. gamma- 

 rellus, but is entirely absent in Talorchestia brito. 



