Note 2 — Chapter VII · STRUCTURE OF THE HEART IN THE EDRIOPHTHALMA.

Bell (‘Brit. Stalk-eyed Crust.’ p. xlv) considers himself justified in “eliminating” Thompson’s observation at once, because he could only have examined ovigerous females preserved in alcohol. But any one who had paid so much attention as Thompson to the development of these animals, must have been well able to decide with certainty upon eggs, if not too far from maturity or badly preserved, whether a Zoëa would be produced from them. Moreover, the mode of life of the Land-Crabs is in favour of Thompson. “Once in the year,” says Troschel’s ‘Handbuch der Zoologie,’ “they migrate in great crowds to the sea in order to deposit their eggs, and afterwards return much exhausted towards their dwelling places, which are reached only by a few.” For what purpose would be these destructive migrations in species whose young quit the egg and the mother as terrestrial animals?