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smaller specimens from the Arafura Sea, 32-36 fms. (No. 160). In
these latter the carapace is more convex and the spines at the postero
lateral angles of the carapace less developed. Although
smaller, most of these are adult, since among them are females
with ova.
There are besides in the British-Museum collection a female from
the Indian Ocean (Gen. Hardwicke), several specimens from Hong
Kong (Dr. IF. A . Harland), and others, without definite locality,
from the collections of H.M.SS. ‘ Herald ’ and ' Samarang.’
68. Achelous granulatus (AI.-Edw.). (P late X X III.
fig. B, var.)
A male of this common and widely distributed species is in the
collection from Priday Island, Torres Straits, 13 fms. (No. 153). An
enumeration of the localities whence the Museum possesses specimens
is given in my Beport on the Crustacea collected at Bodriguez
by the naturalists of the British Transit-of-F^enus Expedition*, to
which should be added the following ;—Seychelles (Dr. E. Perceval
Wright), and Loyalty Islands, Lifu (Pev. S. J . Whitmee). I t is
recorded by Mr. Haswell from Palm Island (as Amphitrite gladiator).
A specimen from Prince of Wales Channel, 7 fms. (No. 169),
differs from all the specimens of A . granulatus th at I have examined
in wanting the snhmedian spine of the posterior margin of the arm
of the chelipedes (see Plate X X III. fig. B ) ; it may be designated var.
unispinosus. The carapace is less granulated and the teeth o,f the
antero-lateral margins less produced and spiniform than is usual in
this species, and much less so than in the specimen from Friday
Island.
69. Thalamita admete (Herhst).
Here are referred a small female from Port Molle, 5 -12 fms.
(No. 118), in the first collection, and another from Port Jackson,
5 fms., and five males (adult and young) found on a coral-reef at
Clairmont Islands, N.E. coast of Australia (No. 151), in the second
collection.
In the smaller examples of this species the minute rudimentary
fourth tooth of the antero-lateral margins is occasionally deficient,
as has been noted by A. Alilne-Edwards in Thalamita savignyi.
Specimens are in the British-Aluseum collection from Conway
Beef (H.Al.S. ‘ Bercdd’), and also from the Fiji Islands (H.Al.S.
‘ Herald’), Samoa Islands (Rev. S. J . Whitmee), and Sandwich
Islands (IF . H. Pease).
I regard the Thalamita savignyi of Prof. A. Alilne-Edwards t as
probably merely a variety of Th. admete, Herbst. Specimens apparently
referable to this variety are in the British-Museum collection
from the Gulf of Suez (B. AlacAndrew) and Nicol Bay, N.AV. Aus-
* Phil. Trans. clxTÜi. p. 488 (1879).
t Arch, du Mus. d’Hist. Nat. i. p. 357 (1861).
traiia (AI. du Boulay). I t is retained as a distinct species by Kossmann,
who u n i t e s , "however, under the designation Th. prymna,
several of the species regarded as distinct by A. M.-Edwards (vide
‘ Zool. Beis. roth. Meer. ’ i. p. 17, 1877).
70. Thalamita sima, AI.-Edw.
Small specimens are in the first collection from Port Alolle, ohtained
between tide-marks (No. 103) and at 14 fms. (No. 93) ; and
in the second collection, from Thursday Island, 3 -4 fms. (Nos. 175,
1 7 7 )^ 4_5 fms. (No. 165), and Port Darwin, obtained on the beach
(No. 176).
In three very small specimens from Port Denison, Queensland,
4 fms. (No. H I ) , two of which are females with ova, the median
lobes of the front are sinuated, and the front thus appears very obscurely
6-lohed. This is probably a peculiarity due to the small size
of the specimens examined ; the breadth of the carapace of one of
the females is barely 4 lines ( 8 | millim.).
Of this species there are specimens in the British-Aluseum collection
obtained between Cumberland Island and Point Slade and off
Cape Capricorn (J. Alacgillivray, H.M.S. ‘ B attlesnake’) ; also from
Moreton Bay and Port Jackson, and from Swan Biver (J. B. Jukes)
and Shark Bay, AV. Australia (B\ AI. Rayner, H.Al.S. ‘Herald’);
also from New Zealand (purchased), and from the Indian Ocean
(General Hardwicke), and Aku Sima, Japan ( Capt. H. C. St. John) ;
besides others without special indication of locality. A. Alilne-
Edwards records it from New Caledonia. The specimens from the
Indian Ocean have the chelipedes more distinctly tuberculated than
the other examples in the collection, but cannot, I think, on this
account be separated, even as a distinct variety. From the Thalamita
chaptcdi, noticed below, T. sima is distinguished not only by the
much more acute lateral teeth of the carapace, the last of which is
rather more prominent than the rest, but also by the smoother
sternum and by the well-developed spines of the palms of the
chelipedes. In T. chaptali the last of the antero-lateral teeth is (if
any thing) smaUer than the preceding tooth, and the palmar spines
are nearly obsolete *.
* I may take this opportunity of noting that there is now in the collection of
the British Museum a specimen from Ceylon (E. W. H. Holdsworth) apparently
referable to this exceedingly rare Thalamita, originally described from the Red
Sea of which A. Milne-Edwards, when he published his Monograph of the
Por’tunidæ (Arch. Mus. H. N. x. p. 360, 1861), wrote:—“ Cette espèce paraît
extrêmement rare, elle n’existe dans aucun Musée, soit de France, soit de
Angleterre, soit de Hollande.”
This example is an adult male, and agrees very well with M.-Edwards s
description and Savigny’s figure of T. chaptali, except as regards the chelipedes,
the arm of which is strigose, and the wrist and palm and fingers very closely
and distinctly granulated; the sternum is also finely sculptured. As some
indications of granulations appear on the wrist of the left-hand chelipede in
Savigny’s figure, I do not venture to regard our specimen as distinct. Should
future researches, however, demonstrate it to be so, it may be designated
T. holdsworthi.
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