Page:VCH Sussex 1.djvu/306

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A HISTORY OF SUSSEX M. grijfithsice, Cynthtlia Jiemingii, T'hemisto brevispinosa. For the first three of these the names should now rather be respectively Praunus fexiiosus. Leach, Neo?nysis vulgaris (Vaughan Thompson), Siriella armata (Milne- Edwards). Goodsir's Cynthia jiemingii is supposed to be the same as Leptomysis lingvura, Sars. The generic names Cynthia and Cynthilia are withdrawn from it as contravening existing rules, but the specific name jiemingii has the priority, if the identity of the species with lingvura can be considered well established. Themisto brevispinosa, Goodsir, probably belongs to the genus Mysis. Themisto in any case cannot be used for its generic name, as it is preoccupied.^ The Stomatopoda, as they are now by preference called, are in modern classification limited to the one family Squillids. White notes the species Squilla desmarestii, Risso, as having been taken off Brighton, and consigned to the British Museum from Dr. Mantell's collection.^ These ' mantis-shrimps ' differ greatly from all the preceding sets of Crustacea, by having the second maxillipeds transformed into powerful claws in which the two last joints close together like a clasp knife, and even more by having the breathing organs on the appendages of the pleon instead of on those of the front body. White says that Risso's Squilla 'is of a yellowish colour dotted with brown, but is sometimes of a delicate rosy hue ; length about 4 inches.' ^ A well preserved specimen of this pretty species sent me from Bognor by Mr. Guermonprez fully agrees with the characters which have been assigned to it. The eyes are small, triangular. The finger of the great claws has only five spines. The first five segments of the pleon are devoid of submedian carincB. The Rev. E. N. Bloomfield, in a letter dated July 30, 1902, re- ports this species also from Hastings, found there by Miss H. F. Davies. Of the sessile-eyed Malacostraca species are recorded in sufficient variety to indicate that Sussex would be well worth exploring for more members of this copious division. Of the Isopoda anomala or cheli- ferous isopods Mr. Guermonprez reports the occurrence on floating wood of the species long known as Tanais vittatus (Rathke), but now, accord- ing to M. Dollfus, more properly designated by the earlier name 'Tanais cavolimi, Milne-Edwards. Among the Isopoda genuina may first be mentioned the small but peculiar family of the Gnathiids, for among the specimens from the Sussex coast which Hailstone submitted to Westwood was one which the latter authority determined as Gnathia maxillaris (Montagu), adding, ' It has been said that this is the male of the genus Praniza, of which I have published an account in the Annates des Sciences Naturelles. Is this so ? ' * It is interesting to know that Dr. Leach, when establishing the genus Gnathia in 181 3, expressed the opinion that the animal afterwards referred to a genus Praniza was the female of Gnathia maxillaris. But it was not till 1855 that M. Eugene > On this group see Norman in Ann. Nat. Hist. (1892), and Stebbing, History of Crustacea (1893).

  • List of British Animals in British Museum, p. 46, and Popular History, p. 155.

3 Popular History, p. 155.

  • Bulletin Soc. Zool. de France, xxi. 207 (1897). ^ Loudon's Magazine, viii. 273.

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