ORCHESTIA MEDITERRANEA, 
33 
state, and articulates remotely from the apex ^ it is so 
short that it cannot reach to the extremity of the hand. 
They are useless as organs of prehension, and appear too 
feeble to hold, even if they could grasp, any object. 
The three posterior pairs of legs are nearly equal in 
their length, being strong and efficient organs for peram- 
bulation, and fringed with stout hairs. The posterior 
pair never have the fourth and fifth joints broader than 
those upon the two preceding pairs of legs. 
This is a very active and vivacious creature. It hops, 
when disturbed, to a considerable distance, taking a 
direction always towards the sea. The female, from its 
compressed form, and the fact that it can move the legs 
only in a vertical plane, falls upon its sides and wriggles 
along, until it intends to give a spring, when, having 
managed to support itself upon its feet, with the pos- 
terior portion of its body doubled up close beneath, it 
boldly strikes out its tail with a force which sends it 
several feet. By this means the caudal stylets and spines 
are often broken or worn away. The male, by means of 
the warty excrescence upon the last pair of legs, is en- 
abled to walk without falling upon its side. This en- 
largement of the middle joints of the last pair of legs is 
not common to all the species of this genus, and in those 
to which it belongs, it is developed only in the adult 
state, and, according to Rathke, increases with age. It 
is not a complete enlargement of the whole limb, but 
one of breadth of a part only ; the leg existing in its 
normal size as a ridge upon the inner surface. 
The female of O. mediterranean according to Risso, car- 
ries eggs many times during the year. The eggs of this 
species are in an early stage of a deep purple colour, but 
the young, when they first quit the pouch of the parent, 
are of a bright orange. This species, particularly the 
n 
