14 
ORCHESTIlDiE. 
first appears in the year 1802, both in the third volume of 
Latreille’s " Histoire generate des Crustaces et Insectes,” 
and in the second volume of Bose’s “ Hist. nat. des 
Crustaces,” the latter writer giving Latreille the credit 
of the invention. This must be borne in mind, because 
Latreille, in his “ Genera Crust, et Ins.,” vol. i., 1806, 
refers the genus Talitrus to Bose as its author. In the 
last-mentioned work we find the genus, according to the 
views of its founder, to be as extensive as our family Or- 
chestiidae (which it would consequently have been more 
correct to have named, after the present genus, Talitridae), 
embracing the whole of the saltatorial species. Subse- 
quently Leach separated the species with the first pair of 
legs cheliferous under the name of Orchestia. In this 
he has been followed by all subsequent writers. Milne- 
Edwards, Dana, Desmarest, and others, however, intro- 
duced into this genus those species which have the second 
pair of hands as large as in the males of Orchestia ; but 
Nicolet* has very justly separated them from Talitrus , 
under the generic name of Orchestoidea . Brandt f has 
likewise done the same, but, without being aware of 
what Nicolet had proposed, has given to the same 
genus the name of Megalorchestia , w r hich Stimpson 
has followed. Accepting this latter separation of the 
species into two genera, Talitrus appears to be peculiar 
to the European coasts and the southern shores of the 
Mediterranean. The species T. brevicornis of Edwards 
and T. Novi-Zealandice of Dana, both from New Zealand, 
have only been described from females, and since the 
female specimens belonging to the genus Orchestoidea 
resemble Talitri, it is not improbable that these may 
likewise be the females of Orchestoidea. 
* In Gray’s “Hist. phys. de Chile,” iii. p. 229. Crust, pi. 2. fig. 4. 
f Bull. Acad. St. P6tersbourg, 1851, ix., pp. 133, 310. 
