i
Two females were obtained at Albany Island, 3 -4 fms., whence
also it is recorded by Air. Haswell, and a small male at AVarrior
Beef (first collection); also an adult male from Prince of AVales
Channel, 7-9 fms., and three from Thursday Island, 4 -5 fms.(No. 165),
from the second collection.
Specimens are in the British-Aluseum collection from Ceylon
(E. W. H. Holdsworth), and I have also seen examples from Singapore
(in the collection of A. 0. AA*alker, Esq.).
The remarkable development of the rostrum and orbital spines
and the form of the antennal scale serve to distinguish this species.
According to Air. Haswell (Cat. p. 189), whose description of
this and several other of his new species was based on specimens
obtained by H.Al.S. ‘ Alert,’ it is invariably found clinging to the
arms of a species of Comatulid, to which its markings give it a
general resemblance. The carapace is marked with longitudinal
stripes of brownish purple, with a narrow median white line, which
is continued on the first two postahdominal segments ; a t the sides
are three short white markings, the abdomen has broad brownish-
purple and narrow white lines, bases of antenme purple, longitudinal
stripes of purple on the ambulatory legs ; large hand marked with
longitudinal lines of light brown, bordered by narrow darker
hands.
10. Alpheus villosus, AI.-Edw.
An adult example is in the collection from Warrior Beef (first
collection), and two specimens (one of small size) from Thursday
Island, 3 -4 fms. (No. 177), in the second collection.
A female with ova from the Australian coast (without special
indication of locality) is in the Aluseum from the collection of Dr.
J. S. Bowerhank.
To the characters given by Alilne-Edwards I may add th at there
exists a small spinule on the outer margin of the first exposed joint
of the antennulary peduncles. The larger chela is vertically very
deep at its base, hut narrows towards the fingers ; the smaller one
is pubescent, hut without suld or spinules ; the fingers quite as
long as the palm.
11. Pontonia (Conchodytes) tridacnæ, PeUrs.
A large series of specimens was obtained at AA^arrior Beef, at
from 10-16 fms. (No. 137), together with specimens of Pinnotheres
villosidus, which inhabited “ pearl-shells whether the Pontonia
tridacnoe had the same habitat is stated to be uncertain. By far the
greater number of the specimens collected were females with ova.
In the full-sized examples the second pair of legs are very much
larger and more robust than in the specimen figured by Dana (the
only one he had seen), having the palm robust and elongated,
rounded above and below, and the fingers less than half the length
of the palm, the mobile finger strongly carinated above, with a tooth
‘J
or lobe on its inner margin, which fits into a cavity between two
smaller teeth on the inner margin of the lower finger. These characters
are, however, less marked in specimens in which the second
legs are less developed, and there are one or two examples in which
the chelæ scarcely differ in form and proportions from Dana’s figure ;
hence I have not ventured to regard the species as distinct.
A specimen, dried and very imperfect, which probably belongs to
this species, is in the British-Aluseum collection from Keppel Island,
Port Curtis, obtained within the shell of a live Pinna (J. Afacgilli-
vray, H.Al.S. ‘ Battlesnake ’), others from the collection of H.Al.S.
‘ Herald,’ from the interior of Tridacna (without indication of
locality), and others from Alatuka and Ngau (H.M.S. ‘ Herald j .
In all the specimens from the ‘ Herald ’ collection the second pair
of chelipedes are less developed, as in Dana’s figure of this species,
which was based on a specimen from Tutuila, iu the Samoan or
Navigator group (Crust. U.S. Expl. Exp. xiii. p. 571, pi. xxxvii.
fig. E 1852).
I t apjiears very doubtful whether the P. maculata, Stimpson*,
from Tridacnoe ohtained at Bonin, can be regarded as distinct from
P. tridacnoe, from which it is only distinguished by Stimpson by
its elongated form and slenderer rostrum ; the rostrum is, however,
described as reaching only to the penultimate joint of the
antennulary peduncles (and hence shorter than is usual in P. tridacnoe)
and truncated at apex.
The genus Conchodytes, established for this species by Dr. Peters,
can, I think, scarcely be regarded as generically distinct from
Pontonia ; hnt the name may perhaps be conveniently retained as a
snbgeneric designation for P. tridacnoe and the allied species. Dr.
Hilgendorf, who had the opportunity of examining Dr. Peters’s
type, distinguishes it from Pontonia merely by the shorter antennal
flagellum t ; hut the flagellum in P. macrophthalma (which Dr. Peters
himself supposes to belong to Conchodytes) is represented as being
much longer. (See Al.-Edwards, Atlas in Cuvier’s ‘ Bègne Animal,’
Crustacés, pi. lii. fig. 3.)
12. Harpilius inermis. ( P l a t e X X X II. fig. B.)
Body not compressed, smooth, and dorsally rounded, and without
spines either on the carapace or postahdomen. Bostrum spiniform,
rounded and smooth above, longer than the eye-pednncles, rather
broad at base, appearing acute at apex in a dorsal view, without
spinules or teeth on its upper or lower margins ; it is lateraUy
somewhat compressed, and in a lateral view its apex is rounded.
The terminal postahdominal segment is rounded above, hut narrows
considerably towards its distal end, which hears several setæ ; the
lateral margins are unarmed. The eye-pednncles project laterally
and are of moderate size ; the antennulary peduncles project slightly
* Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. p. 38 (1860).
t Sitzungsb. der Akad. Wissensch. Berlin, p. 835 (1878).
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