CHIROCEPHALUS. 
43 
* 
and terminated by several very fine short setae. They 
are about the length of the head, take their origin from 
its upper surface, a little above the root of the pedicle of 
the eyes, and are directed upwards. They are jointed at 
the lower third of their length, which adds to their 
mobility, and are frequently put into motion by the 
animal. The inferior pair (t. IV, f. b) are very remarkable, 
and have been described by different authors as organs 
totally different from antennae. Schoeffer, who describes 
them in the Brancliipus, calls them tentacula, and 
Latreille a sort of mandible ; while Prevost and Jurine, 
who describe them with their complicated attached 
apparatus, call them hands. Their position, however, 
upon the anterior segment of the head, seems, says M. 
Edwards, to determine their true nature, though certainly 
at first sight their conformation appears different from 
what we usually see in these organs. They are essentially 
prehensile organs, and consist chiefly of two large ap- 
pendages which occupy the fore part of the head, and are 
curved downwards towards the thorax. They are articu- 
lated about the middle of their length, the first joint 
being very large and fleshy, and having a short moveable 
conical appendage on its external edge; the second being 
curved, cylindrical, somewhat flattened at its extremity, 
and having a strongly -toothed process at its base. 
Arising from the base of the first joint of each of these 
appendages, we see another organ of a singular conforma- 
tion (t. IV, f. c and c*). It was first distinctly pointed out 
by Shaw ,and has since that been also described by Prevost. 
By the former it is called the trunk, and by the latter the 
second finger. They each consist of a long, flat, curved, 
very flexible body, composed of numerous short articula- 
tions, strongly toothed at its edges, and evidently con- 
sisting of numerous muscular fibres. On the outward 
edge of each, near the base, there are given off four rather 
long and very flexible appendages, strongly toothed on 
their internal edge near the extremity, and a large mem- 
branous Iriangular-shaped body which, when extended 
