Fam. 4. Diastylidae.—Anterior part of thorax sharply marked off from posterior part. Male has two pairs of pleopods. Telson present. Diastylis (Fig. [80]). D. goodsiri from the Arctic ocean measures over an inch in length.
Fam. 5. Pseudocumidae.—Rather similar to Diastylidae, but differ in reduced size of telson and presence of exopodites on third and fourth thoracic legs of female. This family is represented by three very similar marine forms of the genus Pseudocuma; but, as Sars has shown,[[97]] the Caspian Sea contains thirteen peculiar species, only one of which can be referred to the genus Pseudocuma, while the rest may be partitioned among four genera, Pterocuma, Stenocuma, Caspiocuma, Schizorhynchus.
Order III. Isopoda.
The Isopoda and the Amphipoda are frequently classed together as Arthrostraca or Edriophthalmata, owing to a number of features which they share in common, as, for instance, the sessile eyes which distinguish them from the podophthalmatous Schizopoda and Decapoda, the absence of a carapace, and the thoracic limbs which are uniramous throughout their whole existence. For the rest, in the presence of brood-plates and the other diagnostic characters, they are plainly allied to the other Peracarida, and an easy transition is effected from the Mysidacea to the Isopoda through the Chelifera or Anisopoda. Only one thoracic segment is usually fused with the head, the appendage of this segment being the maxillipede; in the Chelifera among Isopoda, and the Caprellidae among Amphipoda, two thoracic segments are fused with the head.
The Isopoda are distinguished from the Amphipoda by the dorso-ventral flattening of the body, as opposed to the lateral flattening in the Amphipoda, by the posterior position of the heart, and by the branchial organs being situated on the abdominal instead of on the thoracic limbs.
The Isopoda, following Sars’[[98]] classification, fall into six sub-orders—the Chelifera, Flabellifera, Valvifera, Asellota, Oniscoida, and Epicarida,—to which must be added the Phreatoicidea.
Sub-Order 1. Chelifera.
The Chelifera, including the families (1) Apseudidae and (2) Tanaidae, are interesting in that they afford a transition between the ordinary Isopods and the Mysidacea. The important features in which they resemble the Mysidacea are, first, the fusion of the first two thoracic segments with the head, with the coincident formation of a kind of carapace in which the respiratory functions are discharged by a pair of branchial lamellae attached to the maxillipedes; and, second, the presence of very small exopodites on the first two thoracic appendages of the Apseudidae.
The second pair of thoracic limbs, i.e. the pair behind the maxillipedes, are developed both in the Apseudidae and Tanaidae into a pair of powerful chelae, and these frequently show marked sexual differences, being much more highly developed in the males than in the females. The biramous and flattened pleopods are purely natatory in function, and the uropods or pleopods of the sixth pair are terminal in position and slender.
