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Neoplax ophiodes. (P late XLV. figs. a-e.)
Disk pentagonal and small; arms narrow, elongated, having the
general appearance of being somewhat constricted between each
joint, owing, probably, to tbe mode of attachment of tbo spines to
tbe edge of tbe side arm-plates. Granules on the disk rather large,
sparse, scattered, sometimes almost glassy in appearance ; at the edge
of the disk they are more closely packed and form a pretty definite row
of bounding granules. Very 'few granules on the actinal surface.
Moutb-piates oval, a good deal broader than long, the sidemouth-
sbields lying across them, so as almost, or altogether, to meet in tbe
middle line. Five moutb-papillac, four close together, tbe fifth
close to its fellow of the ojiposite side. Three or four pretty strono"
teeth. °
Though the genital slits are ordinarily long, tbe bridge separating
the fellows of a pair is of a fair breadth ; genital scale prominent.
Oi/ the fourth or fifth joint from tho disk there are six small
but distinct lateral spines, attached to tbe edge of the lateral p la te ;
and further out there may be seven spines. Tbe lowest spine is
the longest and tbe most distinct. Tbe upper arm-plates are widest
along their proximal edge, tbe sides slope inwards, and tbe distal
edge is much narrower. The most distinctive character in tbe
lower arm-plates appears to be tbe excavation on tbe distal edge.
Tbe tentacle-scale is single, small, and at times, indeed, appears to
be absent.
Diam. of disk 11-5, 8. Length of arm (probable), 60, 40 millim.
Coloration : the three specimens exhibit some ditferences, but are
all brownish above and of a lighter hue below; several arm-joints
are, here and there, darker than those ju st in front of or behind
them.
All tbe three specimens were found at Darros Island, Amirante
group, at a depth of 22 fms.
CEUS TACEA.
BY
E. J. MIEES. ' ï: til
The collection of Crustacea made in the Indian Ocean, if less
numerous in species and less interesting than those obtained on the
Australian coasts, contains a larger number of rare or
forms than might have been expected, when it is remembered that
tbe localities are all included in a region whose Cmstacean fauna
has been repeatedly explored by the collector. Of the Islands,
however, visited by Dr. Coppinger, the Amirante, Proyuience, and
Glorioso groups have been hitherto terroe inoegnitæ to the carcino-
logist, and but little has been hitherto reorded of tbe Crustacean
fauna of tbe Seychelles. _ e i-i,- -d fr, -mpn
I t may be useful (as in the previous part of this Eeport) to mention
here the principal memoirs which have appeared since the
publication of Milne-Edwards’s ‘ Histoire naturelle des Crustacés
1834-40) which deal specially with the Crustacean faima of the
East-African coast from the Eed Sea to the Cape of Good Hope, and
of tbe Mascarene Islands and other islands belougmg to tbe same
m ? i p i a r e T i ) n E. Kranss’s valuable account of the Sontb-
African Crustacea*, containing a complete enumeration of the then
known Podophthalmia and Edriophthalmia of the Cape Colony and
Natal, a work which even now forms the standard ot refeience for
all students of tbe South-African Crustacea. Since its publication
few additions have, indeed, been made to onr knowledge of the
Sontb-African marine and littoral Crustacea beyond the descriptions
of certain new species by Dr. W. Stimpsont.
In 1861-62 appeared Dr. C. Heller’s standard work Beitrage zur
Criistaceen-Fauna des rotben Meeres” i , wMch added largely to w k ft
was previously known from the writings of Milne-Edwards, Euppell,
* ‘ Die südafrikanischen Crustaceen,’ Stuttgart (1843), 4to.
t Proo. Acad. Nat. Sci, Philadelpka- l»57-hU.
+ Sitzungsber. Akad. Wissenschaft. Wien, xlm. (1) p. 297, xliv. ( i j p. ztu
(1861-62). 2 l