PODOCERUS CAPILLATUS. 
443 
ever, having been taken from one in a more perfect 
condition, will compensate for the circumstance. It may 
be readily detected by the plumose antennae (which are so 
thickly furnished with hair, each hair being so thickly 
furred with fine cilia that the antennae resemble a brush 
in appearance rather than the normal organs supporting 
hairs) and the second pair of hands, which are ovate, 
with the palm deeply excavated on the infero-anterior 
margin, the excavation being defined at its posterior 
limits by an obtuse but prominent tooth, as shown in the 
outline figure, marked i. 
This species is beautifully variegated and builds its 
nests in a very bird-like manner in submarine forests; 
the nest consists chiefly of fine thread-like material, 
woven and interlaced, being established firmly in the 
branches of Zoophytes ; some small extraneous fragments 
are often bound in with it, but these appear more the 
result of accident than of intention, as is the case with 
Amphithoe. The form of the nest is somewhat oval, 
the entrance being invariably at the top. These nests 
are evidently used as a place of refuge and security, 
and in which the parent protects and keeps her brood of 
young until they are old enough to be independent of 
the mother’s care. 
Our vignette is taken from a group of these nests one 
of which upon being opened was found to be occupied by 
a parent animal and a swarm of young, evidently of two 
ages, therefore two broods,* demonstrating, we think, 
* We have observed in Atylus carinatus from the Arctic Seas, that the 
young, while yet nurtured in the incubatory pouch, attain progressive stages 
of development. At first the head is without a rostrum, and the body and 
tail without dorsal teeth ; these are afterwards gradually developed, and the 
flagella are added to the antennae articulus by articulus. Figures of this 
interesting development are given in the Catalogue of Amphipoda for the 
British Museum. 
