ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
411 
greatest size attained is about 25 pounds ; the adult male is as a rule 
heavier than the adult female of the same length. Colour variations 
do not appear to be adaptive, but the normal coloration of the lobster 
is of protective significance. In the pelagic stages, young lobsters 
rise to the surface in the day-time and stay there, going down at night. 
Great destruction is wrought upon the free-swimming stages by both 
animate and inanimate enemies ; a survival of two in every 10,000 larvae 
hatched would maintain the species at an equilibrium. The whole 
course of development and later growth is slow. This secures the 
necessary transportation from the shores, and wide horizontal distribu- 
tion which is absolutely necessary for the life of the species. 
New Penseid.* — Dr. J. G. de Man describes Heteropenseus longi - 
manus g. et sp. n. from the Java Sea. It differs from all other Penseids 
in the first pereiopods of the male, which are the longest (instead of 
being the shortest) of the legs, and have chelae almost twice as long as 
the carpus, while the dactylopodite is extremely short in relation to the 
propodite. In the female the proportions are as in Penseus. 
Cambarids from Florida.f — Mr. E. Lonnberg has an interesting 
account of anew blind species, Cambarus acherontius, which he discovered 
during a stay in Florida. An account of its characters shows that it is 
a well-defined species, that does not show any likeness to any of the 
blind Gambari hitherto known. 
Although very little is known about the subterranean water system 
of Florida, the author thinks that it must be of considerable extent. 
This view is based on the numerous sink-holes he has seen, and from 
the mighty springs that suddenly come to the surface at different places. 
The new species is, in the author’s opinion, a rather recent form, allied, 
it appears, to the normal blind forms of Cambarus which still exist in 
Florida. As a result of the comparison which he institutes, the author 
comes to the conclusion that it seems very probable that the ancestors 
of G. acherontius were rather similar to the present species G. clarJci. 
The ancestors of the new form may either have forced their way from 
the outer world into the subterranean water, or, which is more probable, 
have accidentally fallen down when one or another of the many sink- 
holes originated. When they once had come down, they had to adapt 
themselves to their new life. The mode, then, in which G. acherontius has 
originated is somewhat different from that of other blind species, which 
live in large open caves with an easier entrance. 
Geographical Distribution of Hippidea.J — Dr. A. E. Ortmann 
thinks that the morphological characters and geographical distribution 
of this group point to an antiquity of at least the middle Tertiary epoch, 
but no fossils are known. He regards an American littoral region as 
the probable area of origin, since all the widely scattered forms seem 
allied to the American types, which are in general more primitive. The 
great trend of dispersal was east to west in the direction of the main 
equatorial current. Excepting Pemipes cubensis (which occurs in West 
Africa and in the West Indies) Hippidea are absent from West Africa. 
* Zool. Anzeig., xix. (1896) pp. 111-3. 
f Bih. K. Svenska Yet. Akad. Hdlgr., xx. (1894) No. 1, 14 pp. £1 pi.). 
X Zool. Jahrb. (Abth. Syst. Geogr. Biol.), ix. (1896) pp. 219-43. 
