A NEW ( X()(;()Xir) FROM THE BAHAMAS 



LEON J. COLE 



Mr. Thomas Barbour has kindly turned over to me for exam- 

 ination a single pycnogonid taken upon the expedition made by 

 himself, in company with Dr. G. M. Allen and Mr. Owen Bryant, 

 to the Bahama Islands in the summer of 1904. A general narrative 

 of their cruise has been published privately by Allen and Barbour 

 ( : 04>. The present paper constitutes the seventh of a series based 

 upon the specimens collected by them. 



It would appear from the fact that only a single pycnogonid 

 was taken during this trip, and that none has been reported from 

 the collections of previous scientific expeditions to the same region, 

 that this group must be poorly represented in the waters contiguous 

 to the Bahamas. And in this connection it is interesting to note 

 that the specimen under consideration belongs without doubt, in 

 its systematic relationships, with two species which Dohrn ('81) 

 described from the Gulf of Naples, constituting his genus Barana. 

 This genus is undoubtedly very close to Parazetes, established by 

 Slater (79) for a pycnogonid from Japan, and possibly should be 

 united with it. The chief difference appears to be the possession 

 by Parazetes of only 9 joints in the palpi, but this is of the less 

 importance when one considers that it is apparently the terminal 

 joint which is lacking, and that the other joints have about the 

 same relative proportions that they have in Barana. Slater lays 

 emphasis on the point that in his specimen the proboscis was 

 4-cleft; but since the trimerous proboscis is almost universal ' 

 in all other known Pycnogonida, it is not unreasonable to suppose 

 that he might have' had a specimen possessing an individual 

 abnormalitv. Unfortiuiatelv he gives no figures, whicli would 

 greatly luwe facilitated tlu" conM>ari<on <>f Parazetes with other 



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