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

CRtrsTACEA. 213females in the second collection, the one obtained at Friday Island,Torres Straits, 10 fms. (No. 158), and the other in the Arafura Sea,32-3u fms. (No. 160). These specimens are both of very smallsize, one with ova measuring only 2g lines (5 millim.) in length.They differ from M. A. Milne-Edwards's description and figure inbeing (in spirit) of a uniform ashy-grey colour, and in having thesurface of the carapace very uneven, well-marked depressions existingat the back of the cardiac region and in front of each branchialregion ; the surface of the body, viewed under the microscope, isminutely and very closely granulated, but appears smooth to thenaked eye.Milne-Edwards's examples are from New Caledonia and Lifu,and are much larger, the carapace measuring over half an inch(13 millim.) in length. The inequalities of the carapace observablein our specimens may very probably disappear as the animal increasesin size ; therefore I do not regard the Australian specimensas belonging to a distinct species.Ci/chxanthus j^i'nctatus, Haswell (Catalogue, p. 50), from theParamatta River, seems to be a very distinct form, to judge fromthe brief diagnosis*.44. Carpilodes venosus, M.-Ediv.A female from Port Molle (No. 95), obtained on the beach, belongshere.This specimen (preserved in spirit) is of a deep purplish-red hue,and has the sulci defining the areolets of the carapace very distinctlydefined, and altogether corresponding in arrangement with thesame sulci in De Haan's figure of his C. ohtusus, which is, I believe,a mere variety of this species. The length of this example is alittle over 7 lines (15 millim.), and its greatest width nearly 1 inch(25 millim.).In a larger female example from the Japanese seas, presented tothe British Museum by Capt. H. C. St. John, U.N., and receivedsince the publication of my report on the Podophthalmia of hiscollection—length of carapace over 10 lines (22 millim.), width1 in. 5 lines (36 millim.)—the colour (in spirit) is a lighter orangered,and several of the sulci of the carapace less distinctly definedor partially obliterated ; this is no doubt due to the greater age ofthe specimen.Stimpsont mentions the occurrence of C. venosus (as Liomeraobtusa) at Ousima Island in the Japanese seas ;and there is aspecimen in the British-Museum collection from the PhilippineIslands, Corregidor(Cwmi»/7), designated C. venosus, and others fromSir C. Hardy's Island, dredged in 11 fms. (J. B. Juices), &c. Itsrange extends from the Mauritius to New Caledonia.* It may be useful here to mention that Panopeus acutidens, Haswell {t. c.p. 51, pi. i. fig. 2), is scarcel}' to be regarded as distinct from E'pixanthus dentatus{Panopcus dentatus, Ad. & White), of which there are authentic specimensin the British-Museum collection.t Proc. Ac. Wat. Sci. Phil. p. 31 (1858).