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Proceedings of the Royal Society 
bases of the pereiopods, adpressed closely to the body, and reaching 
the coxae of the third pair. 
Length 34 inches. Length of chelipeds rather more than 2 inches. 
“ Knight Errant” August 10, 1880. Station 4 ; in 555 fathoms. 
Mr. Wood Mason ( Journal Asiatic Society of Bengal , vol. xiii. 
1873 ; and Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 4, vol. xii. 1873, p. 59), established 
the genus Nephropsis in 1873 for the reception of a small lobster- 
like crustacean which he procured in 260-300 fathoms off Ross 
Island, on the coast of the Andamans. The genus approaches very 
closely to Nephrops, but differs from it in the absence of the antennal 
scale of the lower antennae. In 1880 Mr Spence Bate procured a 
second species, Nephropsis cornubiensis, off the Cornish Coast ( Report 
Brit. Assoc., 1880, p. 160), and mentioned that he had in his hands 
a third species taken during the “ Challenger ” Expedition in 700 
fathoms, south of New Guinea, and a fourth, procured also by the 
“ Challenger ” in 800 fathoms off Bermuda, and remarked that “ the 
resemblance of all four species is very close, and the distinction of 
one from the other is dependent chiefly upon the modified forms of 
more or less important parts.” In the same year Professor A. Milne 
Edwards described (Ann. des Sci. Natur., vi. 9) Nephropsis 
Agassizii from 1500 meters, coast of Florida, but this description I 
have not seen ; and almost at the same time Mr. S. I. Smith charac- 
terised ( Proc . National Museum , Washington , vol. iii. p. 431) yet 
another form, Nephropsis acideatus , which was taken off the coast of 
the United States in 100-126 fathoms. The foregoing description 
of N. atlantica was drawn up in November 1880, and the “Knight 
Errant ” specimen was at the same time returned to Sir Wy ville 
Thomson, and I have not since seen it. Comparing the description 
with that subsequently published by Mr. Smith, there is the strongest 
suspicion that they are the same species ; but all the forms seem to 
be very closely allied, if indeed distinct. Mr. Smith describes the 
carapace of N. aculeatus as “showing no difference whatever” 
from N. stewartii except in having rather a longer rostrum. Now 
the spiny armature of N. atlantica is certainly different from that 
assigned to N . stewartii , and therefore I do not feel justified in 
assigning the “ Knight Errant ” specimen to N. aculeatus , though at 
the same time I very unwillingly give it a name. 
