1. DICHELASPIS WARWICKII. Pl. II, figs. 6, 6 _a_, _b_.
OCTOLASMIS WARWICKII. _J. E. Gray._ Annals of Philosophy, vol. x, p. 100, 1825; Spicilegia Zoologica. t. vi, fig. 16, 1830.
_D. scutorum segmento basali duplo latiore quam segmentum occludens: tergorum parte inferiore paul latiore quam occludens scutorum segmentum._
Scuta, with the basal segment twice as wide as the occludent segment; terga, with the lower part slightly wider than the occludent segment of the scuta.
Mandibles, generally with four teeth.
Off Borneo, attached to a crab (Belcher): China Sea. British Museum.
_General Appearance._--Capitulum much compressed, elongated, with the valves not very close together, the carina being separated by a rather wide s.p.a.ce from the scuta and terga. Valves variable in shape, very thin and translucent, covered by thin membrane, which, over the whole capitulum, is studded with minute blunt points.
_Scuta._--Segments without internal teeth or an internal basal rim; the occludent segment long, narrow, pointed, not quite flat, sometimes slightly wider in the upper part; about one third of its own length longer than the basal segment; occludent margin slightly arched; basal segment about twice as wide as the occludent segment, triangular, slightly convex; in young specimens (Pl. II, fig. 6 _b_), the carinal margin of the basal segment is protuberant, and the occludent margin hollowed out; in old specimens the occludent margin of the basal segment is straight, and the carinal margin much hollowed out. In very young specimens the basal segment is very small compared to the occludent.
_Terga_, variable in shape; flat, lower part wider than the occludent segment of the scuta; occludent margin double, forming a considerable rectangular projection, as in the terga of Lepas; scutal margin deeply excised at a point corresponding with the apex of the scuta, a flat tooth or projection being thus formed; there is sometimes a second tooth (fig. 6 _b_) a little above the basal point. The terga, in the first variety, somewhat resemble in shape the scuta of _Conchoderma aurita_.
_Carina_, much bowed, narrow, slightly concave within, (in the Borneo specimen, rather wider and more concave,) extending up between the terga for half their length, terminating downwards in a rectangularly inflected, deeply imbedded, oblong, rather wide, flat disc, at its extremity more or less deeply notched. This disc is externally smooth; internally it sometimes has two divergent ridges on it; it extends across about two-thirds of the base of the capitulum (fig. 6 _a_, as seen from beneath, when the peduncle is cut off), to under the middle of the basal segments of the scuta.
_Peduncle_, narrow, flattened; united to the capitulum some little way below the scuta; about as long as the capitulum; the membrane of which it is composed is thin, externally studded with bluntly conical beads of yellowish chitine, of which the largest were 1/2000 of an inch in diameter; on their internal surfaces these are furnished with a small central, circular depression, apparently for a tubulus; the arrangement of the beads varied in concentric zones. Similar conical points on the capitulum have an internal concave surface about 1/3000 in diameter, with a central circle 1/12000 in diameter, for the insertion, as I believe, of a tubulus.
_Size._--The largest specimen had a capitulum a quarter of an inch long.
_Mouth._--Labrum highly bullate; crest with not very minute, blunt teeth, which towards the middle lie closer and closer to each other, so as to touch. Palpi rather small, with a few very long bristles at the apex.
_Mandibles_, narrow, produced, with four teeth, and the inferior angle tooth-like and ac.u.minated; in one specimen, on one side of the mouth, the mandible had only three teeth.
_Maxillae_, small; at the upper angle there are two large spines and a single small one, beneath which there is a deep notch, and beneath this a straight but projecting edge, bearing a few moderately large and some smaller spines. Outer maxillae sparingly covered with bristles along the inner margin.
_Cirri._--First pair far removed from the second pair, and not above half their length; segments rather broad, with transverse rows of bristles not very thickly crowded together; terminal segments very obtuse, and furnished with thick spines. The segments of the three posterior pair have each three or four pair of spines, with a few minute spines scattered in an exterior, parallel, longitudinal row; dorsal tufts, with four or five long spines. The second cirrus has its anterior ramus not thicker, but rather shorter than the posterior ramus; the former is only a little more thickly clothed with spines, owing to those in the longitudinal lateral row being longer and more numerous, than is the sixth pair of cirri. Bristles not serrated.
_Caudal Appendages_, narrow, thin, slightly curved, about half as long as the pedicels of the sixth cirrus; in young specimens, the appendage bore seven or eight pair of long bristles rectangularly projecting; in some older specimens, there was a tuft of bristles on the summit, and two other tufts on the sides.
I at first thought that the Borneo specimen was a distinct species, but after careful comparison of the external and internal parts, the only difference which I can detect is, that the terga are slightly larger, and that the carina, to a more evident degree, is wider, more especially in the middle and lower portions.
2. DICHELASPIS GRAYII. Pl. II, fig. 9.
_D. scutorum segmento basali angustiore quam segmentum occludens; longitudine paene dimidia: tergis bipenniformibus, margine crenato, spina postica, manubrio angustiore quam occludens scutorum segmentum._
Scuta, with the basal segment narrower than the occludent segment, and about half as long as it. Terga like a battle-axe, with the edge crenated and a spike behind; the handle narrower than the occludent segment of the scuta.
Mandibles with three teeth; cirri unknown.
Attached to the skin of a sea-snake, believed to have been the _Hydeus_ or _Pelamis bicolor_, and therefore from the Tropical, Indian or Pacific Oceans; a.s.sociated with the _Conchoderma Hunteri_; single specimen, in a very bad condition, in the Royal College of Surgeons.
_General Appearance._--Capitulum much compressed, elongated, formed of very thin membrane, with the valves forming round it a mere border.
Valves thin, imperfectly calcified, covered with membrane.
_Scuta_ formed of two narrow plates at very nearly right-angles to each other, one extending along the occludent, and the other along the basal margin; both become very narrow at the point of junction, and are there not calcified, but are evidently continuous and form part of the same valve; the basal segment is about half as long and narrower than the occludent segment, flat and bluntly pointed at the end; occludent segment slightly curled, and therefore the whole does not lie quite in the same plane; narrow close to the umbo, with a very minute tooth on the under side; apex rounded. In the upper part, the occludent segments leave the membranous margin of the orifice, and run in near to the terga, bending towards them at an angle of 45 with their lower part. I was unable to distinguish the primordial valves.
_Terga._--These valves are of the most singular shape, resembling a battle-axe, with a flat and rather broad handle; the upper part consists of an axe, with a broad cutting crenated edge, behind which is a short blunt spike. The spike and cutting edge together answer to the double occludent margin of the tergum in Lepas. The whole valve is flat, thin, and lies in the same plane; the carinal margin is nearly straight; the scutal margin bulges out a little, and at a short distance above the blunt basal point is suddenly narrowed in, making the lowermost portion very narrow; the widest part of the handle of the battle-axe, is narrower than the occludent segment of the scuta. The two spikes behind the cutting and crenated edges of the two terga, are blunt and almost touch each other; above their point of juncture, the membrane of the orifice forms a slight central protuberance.
_Carina_, very narrow throughout, concave within, much bowed; upper point broken and lost, but it must have run up between the terga for more than half their length; basal portion inflected at nearly right angles, and running in between, and close below, the linear basal segments of the scuta, so as almost entirely to cut off internally the peduncle and capitulum. This lower inflected and imbedded portion, or disc, gradually widens towards its further end, which is, at least, four times as wide as the upper part of the carina, and is deeply excised, but to what exact extent I cannot state, as the specimen was much broken. On each side of this elongated triangular disc, there is a slight shoulder corresponding to the ends of the basal segments of the scuta; and on the upper surface of each shoulder, there is a small tooth or projection. The middle part of the disc is barely calcified, and is transparent.
_Peduncle_, rather longer than, and not above half as wide as, the capitulum; the latter being nearly 2/10ths of an inch in length: the membrane of the peduncle is thin, naked and structureless.
_Mouth._--Labrum highly protuberant in the upper part, with a row of beads on the crest. Palpi small, with few bristles. _Mandibles_, with the whole inferior part, very narrow; three teeth very sharp, with a slight projection, perhaps, marking the place of a fourth tooth; inferior angle ending in the minutest point; first tooth as far from the second, as the latter from the inferior angle. _Maxillae_ with a _broad_ shallow notch; inferior angle much rounded, bearing only four or five pair of spines.
_Cirri._--First pair apparently remote from the second pair; all five posterior pair lost; first pair short, with the rami unequal by about two segments; segments clothed with several transverse rows of bristles; terminal segments blunt.
3. DICHELASPIS PELLUCIDA. Pl. II, fig. 7.
_D. valvarum singularum ac.u.minibus superioribus et inferioribus vix intersecantibus: scutorum segmento basali multo angustiore quam segmentum occludens; longitudine fere dimidia: tergis bipenniformibus, margine integro, manubrii ac.u.mine ad carinam flexo._
Valves with the upper and lower points of the several valves only just crossing each other. Scuta with the basal segment much narrower than the occludent segment, and about half as long as it. Terga like a battle-axe, with the edge smooth, and the point of the handle bent towards the carina.
Mandibles with four teeth; caudal appendages twice as long as the pedicels of the sixth cirrus.
Indian Ocean; attached to a sea-snake.
This species comes very close to the _D. Grayii_, which likewise was attached to a snake; but I cannot persuade myself, without seeing a graduated series, that the differences immediately to be pointed out can be due to ordinary variation. I am much indebted for specimens to the kindness of Mr. Busk.
_General Appearance._--The membrane of the capitulum and peduncle is surprisingly thin and pellucid, so that the ovarian tubes within the peduncle can be traced with the greatest ease. The valves are small, the apices only just crossing each other, and are composed of yellow chitine, with mere traces of calcification. The capitulum is pointed, oval, .15 of an inch long; the peduncle is narrow, and fully twice as long as the capitulum.
_Scuta._--The two segments stand at right-angles to each other; the basal segment is linear and pointed, fully half as long, but only one third as wide, as the occludent segment. The point of junction of the two segments is wider than the rest of the basal segment. This latter segment lies some little way above the top of the peduncle. The occludent segment is bluntly pointed; it is directed a little inwards from the edge of the orifice towards the terga; the apex reaches up just above the slightly reflexed lower point of the terga. The adductor muscle is fixed under the point of junction of the two segments.
The _Terga_ are battle axe-shaped, with the blade part very prominent, smooth-edged; behind the blade there is a short upwardly-turned prominence. The lower point of the handle of the axe, is bent towards the carina. The tergum, measured in a straight line, equals in length two thirds of the occludent segment of the scutum, the handle being rather narrower than this same segment.
The _Carina_ is extremely narrow and much bowed; the apex reaches up only to just above the lower bent points of the terga. The basal end is rectangularly inflected, and stretches internally nearly across the peduncle; it consists (fig. 7 _a_) of a triangular disc of yellow thin membrane, four or five times as wide as the upper part of the valve; the end of this disc is hollowed out; its edges are thickened and calcified, and hence, at first, instead of a disc, this lower part of the carina appears like a wide fork; the tips of the p.r.o.ngs stretch just under the tips of the basal segments of the scuta.
_Peduncle._--Its narrowness and transparency are its only two remarkable characters.
_Mouth._--All the parts closely resemble those of _D. Grayii_, but being in a better state of preservation I will describe them. The labrum is highly bullate, with a row of minute teeth on the crest, placed very close together in the middle. Palpi small, thinly clothed with spines; mandibles extremely narrow, hairy, with four teeth, but the lower tooth is so close to the inferior angle, as only to make the latter look double. Maxillae, with a very deep broad notch, dividing the whole into two almost equal halves; in the upper part there are three main spines.
_Cirri._--The first pair are placed at a considerable distance from the second pair; they are short with equal rami, and rather broad segments furnished with a few transverse rows of bristles. The five posterior cirri have singularly few, but much elongated segments, bearing four pair of spines: the two rami of the second pair are alike, and differ only from the posterior cirri in a few of the basal segments having a few more spines.
The _Caudal Appendages_ are twice as long as the pedicels, and nearly half as long as the whole of the sixth cirrus; they have a small tuft of long thin spines at their ends, and a few in pairs, or single, along their whole length; at first I thought that they were multi-articulate, but after careful examination I can perceive no distinct articulations; I have seen no other instance of so long an appendage without articulations.
_Diagnosis._--This species differs from _D. Grayii_ in all the valves being shorter, so that their points only just cross each other; but this, I conceive, is an unimportant character. In the scuta, the basal segment is here narrower, but the point of junction of the two segments wider than in that species; in the terga, the edge of the axe is smooth instead of being crenated, and the handle and the point behind are of a rather different shape; in the carina the imbedded basal disc has not shoulders and small teeth, as in _D. Grayii_. Notwithstanding these differences, I should not be much surprised if the present form were to turn out to be a mere variety.
4. DICHELASPIS LOWEI. Pl. II, fig. 8.
_D. scutorum segmento basali angustiore quam occludens segmentum, longitudine fere 4/5: tergorum parte inferiori duplo latiore quam occludens scutorum segmentum._
Scuta with the basal segment narrower than the occludent segment, and about four-fifths as long as it. Terga with the lower part twice as wide as the occludent segment of the scuta.