THE ISOPOD CRUSTACEAN ACANTHONISCUS 

 SPINIGER KINAHAN REDESCRIBED. 



By Harriet Richardson, 

 Collaborator, Division of Marine Invertebrates, U. 8. National Museum. 



In 1847 Adam White a gave the name Acanthoniscus spiniger to a 

 new Isopod which Mr. Philip H. Gosse found in Jamaica. This 

 form was not described at that time. Six years afterward the latter 

 naturalist 6 referred in the following way to this isopod : "A curious 

 little dark grey Oniscus, every segment of which is armed with two 

 spines, was numerous ; it has been described by my friend, Mr. Adam 

 White of the British Museum, under the name of Acanthoniscus 

 spiniger." The first description which was published of Acantho- 

 niscus spiniger was that of Kinahan in 1859. c Kinahan's descrip- 

 tion is based on the original specimen in the British Museum, which 

 was the only specimen he had seen. In 1885 Budde-Limd d placed in 

 his family Onisci the genus Acanthoniscus of 'which he said : " Ad tri- 

 bum Oniscorum sequent ia genera in natura mihi ignota pertinere 

 videntur." He had evidently not seen the specimen in the British 

 Museum for he gives no description, and although he does not place 

 the genus in either section I, Armadilloidea, or section II, Onis- 

 coidea, yet he refers to it at the end of his section Oniscoidea. Kina- 

 han did not place the genus in any family. 



About 1877 Mr. H. G. Hubbard, the entomologist, made collections 

 in Jamaica. Some of his collections were given to the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology and some came to the U. S. National Museum 

 after his death. Among the insects was a specimen of Acanthonis- 

 cus spiniger, which was turned over to me last winter. The label 

 accompanying it reads: " Oniscus spiniger. Jamaica." As I had 

 not seen a specimen of this species before, and as the only description 

 of it is that given by Kinahan, I thought it would be of interest to 



°List Crust. Brit. Mus., 1847, p. 99. 



6 A Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica, 1851, p. 65. 



c Proc. Dublin University, I, 1859, p. 197, pi. 19, fig. 4. 



d Crust Isop. Terrestria, 18S5, p. 242. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. XXXVI— No. 1678. 



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