5. Alpheus edwardsii.
Athanasus edwardsii, Audouin, P.iplic. planches de Savigny, Descript.
de VEgypte, Atlas, pi. x. fig. 1 (1809).
Alpheus iieterochelis, Say, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. i. p. 243
(1818) ; M.-Edxv. Hist. Nat. Crust, ii. p. 356 (1837) ; De Kay,
Crustacea in Zuol. Nexo Yox-k I ’auna, p. 26 (1844) ; Gibbes, Proc.
Amer. Assoc. Advanc. Sci. p. 196 Q850) ; Kingsley, Bull. U.S.
Geol. and Geoyr. Survey, iv. (Xo. 1) p. 194 (1877) ; Smith, Trans.
Conn. Acad. Sci. ii. pp. 23, 39 (1869) ; Lockinyton, Ann. 4" May.
Nat. Hist. ser. 5, i. p. 475 (1878).
? Alpheus armillatus, M.-Pdiv. Hist. Nat. Crust, ii. p. 475 (1837).
Alpheus neptuuus, triton, rhode, and amphitrite, White, List Crust.
Brit. AIus. p. 74 (1847), descr. nullâ.
Alpheus doris, White, t. c. p. 75 (1847), descr. nulU.
Alpheus avarus, De Haan (xiec Pahricius), Crust, ixi Pauna Japónica,
p. 179, pi. xlv. fig. 3 (1849), Alpheus bisincisus on plate.
Alpheus edwardsii, Dana (neo Milne-Edwards), Crust, in U.S. E x plor.
E.vped. xiii. p. 342, pi. xxxiv. fig. 2 (1852) ? ; Heller, Sitzimgsb.
der Akad. Wissensch. Wien, math.-nat. Klasse, xliv. (i.) p. 267
(1862) ; Norxnan, Ann. May. Nat. Hist. ser. 4, ii. p. l74 (1868) ;
Aliers, Cr. in Zool. ‘Erebus ’ and ‘Terrorf p. 4, pi. iv. fig. 3 (1874),
A. neptunus on plate ; Hilgendorf, Monatsb. Akad. Berlin, p. 830
(1878).
Alpheus edwardsii, var. leviusculus, Dana, t. c. p. 543, pi. xxxiv.
hg. 3 (1852).
Alpheus streiiLius, Dana, t. c. p. 545, pi. xxxiv. fig. 2 (1852) ; Miers,
t. c. p. 6, pi. iv. fig. 2 (1874), A. doris on plate ; Monatsb. Akad.
Berlin, p. 831 (1878).
? Alpheus pacificus, Dana, t. c. p. 544, ph xxxiv. fig. 5 (1852), var. ?
Halopsyche lutaria, Saussure, Bev. Zuol. p. 100 (1857).
Alpheus lutarius, Saussure, Mém. Soc. Phys. et Hist. Aiat. Genève,
xiv. p. 461, pi. iii. fig. 24 (1858) : von Martexis, Arch. f. Natura.
xxxviii. p. 139 (1872).
Alpheus bisincisus [De Haan), Stimpson, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci.
Philad. p. 30 (1860) ; Miers, Pi'oc. Zool. Soc. p. 53 (1879).
Alpheus crassimanus, Heller, Beise der Novara, Crust, p. 107, pi. x.
tig. 2 (1865), var. ?
? Alpheus hispinosus, Streets, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. p. 242
(1878).
Alpheus edwardsii and A. strenuus, De Man, Notes from the Leyden
Ahiseuxn, xxi. p. 105 (1881).
As the very common and widely distributed species which is here
referred to the Alpheus edxvardsii of Audouin has been designated
by many different specific names, it may be useful to point out its
most salient characters, more especially as Savigny’s excellent figure,
by which alone the species may be easily identified, is not accompanied
by any description. The rostrum is short, acute, and arises
from the front margin of the carapace ; on either side of it, between
the front and supraocular arches, a longitudinal depression extends
hack on the dorsal surface of the carapace for a short distance, so
th at the dorsal surface is slightly carinated. The second (exposed)
joint of the antennules is longer than the first. The basal scale of
the outer antennæ scarcely reaches beyond the peduncle, and is
without or has only a rudimentary spine at base; it narrows somewhat
to its apex, which has a small spinule at its outer angle. The
larger chelipede (which may be either the right or left) has a massive
hand, which is rounded at its proximal end, notched above and
toothed below, ju st behind the bases of the fingers ; on the outer
and inner surface of the palm, ju st below the incision in the upper
margin, is an irregular shallow depression, th at on the inner surface
being somewhat of a triangulate and th at on the outer surface of a
quadrangulate shape ; an impressed line, which forms the posterior
margin of the depression of the inner surface, passes obliquely downward
to the lower and proximal margin, aud upward over the
rounded superior margin, whence it is prolonged in a nearly straight
line along the upper and outer surface to the rounded base of the
upper m arg in ; this line is sometimes nearly obsolete; the mobile
finger is rounded and subcarinated above, and is armed on its inner
margin near the base with a very prominent rounded tooth or lobe,
which fits into a deep pit in the lower (immobile) finger ; the smaller
chela is slender (in the typical form), without notches, teeth, or
sulci; the second joint of the carpus of the second leg is usually a
little shorter than the first, the three last joints short, the fifth a
little longer than the fourth.
In some specimens the lobe or tooth immediately behind the
notch on the upper and lower margins of the large chela is rounded
or suhacute, in others it is acute.
Eight specimens (males and females) are in tho first collection
from Port Curtis, 0-11 fms. (No. 92), one (male) from Port Alolle
beach (No. 95), and two females from P ort Denison, 4 fms. (No. I l l ) ;
a small specimen (No. 123) is without special indication of locality.
In the second collection are two small specimens from Thursday
Island, 4 -5 fms., a female from Dundas Straits, 17 fms. (No. 161),
and an adult female from the beach at Port Darwin (No. 176).
There are, besides, specimens in the British-Aluseum collection
from other localities as follows:—North Australia (Dr. J. B.
Elsex)), Port Essington and EockhaDipton (Godeffroy Aluseum
as A . brevirostris, AI.-E.). Also from the Eed Sea (Dr. 0.
Heller); Gulf of Suez (B. AlacAndrew); Egypt (J. Burton);
Zanzibar (Dr. KirJc); Seychelles (Dr. E. P. Wright) ; Karachi
(Karachi Aluseum) ; Ceylon (E. W. H. Holdsworth); Indian Ocean,
Philippine Islands, Bohol (Gwrnm^); Japan, Katsura (Gapt. H. 0.
St. John, B.N., the specimens I formerly designated A. bisincisus,
De H a a n ); New Hebrides (J. Alacgillivraxj) ; Fiji Islands, Nairai
(H.Al.S. ‘Herald'); Samoa Islands, Upolu (Bev. S. J. Whitmee)
; Tahiti (Mus. Godeffroy, as A . pacificus, D an a ); Sandwich
Islands (PP. I I . Pease). Specimens from the island of Trinidad
(B. J . Lechmere Guppxj) and the west coast of Central America
(Capt. Dow) seem to he scarcely specifically distinguishable *.
The males may he distinguished from the females by the form of
* The series of specimens in the British-Museum collection, extensive though
it be, does not fully exhibit the ascertained range of this species. According to
f li