MEKOM. 347 MEBOVINGIANS. point about three; its deptli is 10 to Ui feet. Jos>cphiis calls the lake Semeehonitis (Wars, iii.- X. 7), and the region about it Ulatha (Antiqui- ties, XV., X. 3). The district, which is very fer- tile, is inhabited by Arabs. Consult JIaegregor, 2'Ae Rob Hui/ on the Jordan (New York, 1870). MEBOPE, nier'6-pe. ( 1 ) A sister of Phaethon and one of the Heliades. (2) One of the Pleiades, the wife of Sisyphus and mother of Glaucus. (3) The daughter of C'ypselus and wife of the Mes- scniiin King Cresphontes. All her sons except .Epytus were killed when her brother-in-law. Polyphonies, seized the kingdom. .i<2pytus tied, and' when he had grown up returned and put Polyiiliontos to death. MEKOPE, uia'rop'. A tragedy by Voltaire (174:ii. MEROP'ODA (Neo-Lat., from Gk. /x^pos, nie- ros, a part, a segment + irovs, 7ro56s, fjous, podos, a foot ) . The name given by Packard to a phy- lum or general group of arthropodous animals comprising three classes, i.e. the diplopod Jlyria- ])oda (i).v. ) or 'thousand-legs,' the Pauropoda, and the Sympliyla. It is equivalent to the 'Trachcata proyoncata of Pocock. In the typical forms (Diplopoda) the second pair of mouth- appendages, corresponding to the mandibles of insects, are very different in structure and com- posed of three segments, since all the head and thoracic appendages are made up of several joints, hence the name Mcropoda, or jointed-legs. In this phylum all the forms agree in having the genital outlets situated a little behind the head; i.e. in diplopods and pauropods in the third segment behind the head, while in the Symphyla (Scolopendrella) the single opening is in the fourth segment from the head. The young •on hatching differ from those of centipedes (Chi- lopoda) in having but three pairs of legs, but un- like tho.se of insects, either the third or the sec- ond trunk-segment in diplopods is footless. See Centipede : J1yri.poda. MER'OSTOM'ATA (Neo-Lat. nom. pi., from Gk. fi^pos, iiiiros. ])art -f- ffxi/ia, stoma, mouth). A class of Arthropoda, standing next above the Trilobites and immediately below the Arachnida, these three classes forming a series by them- selves and distinct from the Crustacea. They are repre.sented by the king-crab (q.v. ), or Limulus, the sole surviving member of the class. The merostomes are subdivided into three orders : the Euryptcrida, represented by Eurvpterus; the Kynziphosura, of which three Paleozoic families are the types; and, third, the Xiphosura, type Limuhis. The class chiefly dift"ers from Trilo- bites in having appendages of two types, those of the head being single, those of the abdomen being hiramous; in being provided with book- gills, attached to the broad abdominal legs, which are fused together at the base, the head appen- dages often ending in a forceps, while they dif- fer from the Arachnida in breathing by gills, all the forms being marine, in the nature of the appendages, the brain, the nervous cord envel- oped by arteries, and by the reproductive organs. The earliest forms are the Eurypterida. The typical genus Eurvpterus, unlike the king- crab, probably actively swarm nearer the sur- face of the sea. The species are found fossil m rocks of Cambrian to Permian age. The form of the body is somewhat like that of a scorpion, though flatter and of larger size. A quadrate Vol. xiu.— 23. ErnypTEKUs fischebi. headpiece or cephalothorax w'ilh rounded front corners bears two large reniforin compound eyes, between which are two small eye spots or ocelli. The abdominal portion consists of twelve seg- ments that taper posteriorly and are terminated by a strong, sharp spine or telson. The structure of the ventral surface of the body is quite similar to that of the horse-slioe crab. The eurypterids appeared first in the Potosi Cambrian limestones of Jlissouri. At the end of the Silurian period geographic conditions seem to have favored their development, for they expanded rapidly and became the dominant types of the fauna of the inclosed basins in which were deposited the shallow water passage beds between the Silurian and Devonian forma- tions. They appear in great numbers in the water limestones or cement rocks of New York State, and in beds of equivalent age and similar character in Great Britain and the Baltic Provinces; also in the coal meas- ures of Carboniferous age in Pennsylvania, Nova Scotia, and in Europe, where they are associated with the fossil remains of a swamp fauna and flora. The last member of the genus is known from Permian fresh-water beds- of Portugal. The genus seems to have been first a marine shallow-water organism and to have changed its habitat through brackish and possibly to fresh water in succeeding geological periods. Several allied genera are found asso- ciated with the remains of Eurypterus; of these Pterygotus, Slimonia, and Stylonurus are the most important. See the articles Kinq-Crab; XiPIlO.SURA. Bibliography. Zittell, Text-Book of Palcon- tolof/!/, trans, by Eastman (New York, 1900); Woodward, J7oHO(/r«;>ft of the British Fossil Crus- tacea of the Order Merostomata ( Pala-ontological Society, London, 1806-78) ; Packard, "On the Carboniferous Xiphosurous Fauna of North America," in the Memoirs of the National Acad- emy of Sciences, vol. iii. (Washington, 1886); with the writings of De Kay, Hall, Huxley, Salt- er, Peach, and Laurie. MER'OVIN'GIANS. The fir.st djaiasty of the Prankish Kings in Gaul. The name is de- rived from MeroviEus, the reputed grandfather of the great Prankish King Clovis (q.v.), who in 486 put an end to the Roman doniininn in Gaul. Clovis on his death divided his kingdom among , his four sons, one of whom, Clotaire I., reunited them under his own sway, in 5.58. On his death, in 561, the Kingdom was again divided into four parts — Aquitaine. Burgundy. Neustria, and Aus- trasia. His grandson, Clotaire TI., again reunited them in 613. Later there were again three States, Neustria, Austrasia, and Burgundy, which were united in 687. The power of the Jlerovingian kings was finally reduced to a shadow, the real power having passed into the hands of the major donius (q.v.). The dynasty of the Merovingians terminated with the deposition of Childeric III.
