Report on the zoological collections made in the Indo-Pacific Ocean ...

:180 COLLECTIONS FBOM MELANESIA.of the more widely ranging species, I have given (where I have notpreviously done so) the localities whence the British Museum possessspecimens, which will serve to indicate generally with sufficientaccuracy the distribution of the species, or, in some cases, thelacuna' which yet remain in the series preserved in the NationalCollection.With few exceptions, the species were dredged in comparativelyshallow water, on which account it is the more remarkable that somany novelties were obtained. Of the species already described, alargo proportion (more than one third) are widely distributedthroughout the Oriental or Indo-Pacific regions, from the MascareneIslands (or African coast) on the east, to the Fiji, Samoa, or Sandwichislands on the west, while many others are at present known onlyfrom the Indo-Malayan section of this area, ranging pi-obably fromthe Sea of Ecngal to the coasts of China and Japan.While the littoral and shallow-water Crustacea which are distributedthroughout the great Indo-Pacifi.c region are not, as ageneral ride, found beyond the limits of tliis vast area of distribution,yet there are a certain number which have a far wider rangethus, in the present memoir, Alpheus edwardsii, AJpheus minus,Pena'iis velutinus, Gonodacti/lits chiragra, and Gaprella a'quiUhraare instances of species which are more or less widely distributedthroughout the Atlantic region, and it is probable that futureresearch will largely add to the number of such forms. In regardto the Amphipoda the affinity of the Australian with the Europeanfauna is very remarkable ; and among the few species included inthe presentJieport instances (Lf?micarp(7, 6V(2:>!'e?7rt a'(2'('?7?7;}-a)occur where I have identified Australian examples with well-knownEuropean tj'pes, while in several other instances the distinctions areso slight as to be scarcely of specific importance : hence I mustqualify the opinion I formerly expressed as to the improbability ofthe species of such widely distant regions ever being actuallyidentical *.Appended is a list of the principal localities where the specimenswere dredged, with Dr. Coppinger's notes on the depth of wateraudi nature of the sea-bottom ; the numbers are those attached tothe several bottles containing tlie dredgings, and are referred tottiroughout the Ileport.List of the Localities.Port Jackson. 0-5 fms., February and March 1881 (No. 90) ;5-7 fms.,rock and mud, April 1881 (No. 104).Port Curtis. 7-11 fms., sand and shells, April 1881 (Nos. 85, 87, 88,92) ; beach, April 1881 (No. 96).Percy Island. 0-5 fms., sand and coral (No. 91).Port'Molle. Beach, sand (No. 95); beach and coral-reef (No. 98);beach between tide-marks (No. 103) ; 5-12 fms., coral (No. 118) ;14 fms., rock (No. 93): all in May 1881.* Aim. & Mag. Nat. Uist. ser. 5, v. p. 125 (1880), and P. Z. S. p. 62 (1881).