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

;CEirSTACEA. 215A complete revision of the genus would be necessary, based uponthe comparative study of types and of a much larger series ofspecimens than the Museum at present possesses, in order to determinethe real value of tlie characters ascribed to several of thespecies, which I think will be shown hereafter to be merely synonymsof earlier-described forms. (See on this question Kossmann,Zool. Ergeb. roth. Meer. pp. 32, 33, 1877.)Two very small males obtained on the beach at Thursday Island(second collection, No. 167) are apparently intermediate in manycharacters between this genus and Etisodes, which they resemble ingeneral appearance. The basal antennal joint enters the innerorbital hiatus, but the flagellum is just excluded from it, and thecarapace is broader than in Etisodes and is shaped as in Lcptodius ;the frontal lobes are truncated, not sinuated as in Leptodiuslivklusthe anterior margin straight : there are five distinct acute anterolateralmarginal teeth ; the carapace is slightly lobulated and granulatedanteriorly, plane and smcioth posteriorly ; the carpus and palms ofthe chelipedes rugose ; the ambulatory legs somewhat compressed.Length of carapace barely 4 lines.47. CMorodius niger (ForsJad).A single female of this very common Oriental species was obtainedat Port Denison in 4 fms. (No. 111).A specimen is in the British Museum from Port Jackson (C^fnjn'nr/).C niger ranges from the Red Sea and the Mascarene Islandseastward through the Indian Ocean and Malaysian archipelago tothe islands of the Pacific (Samoa and Sandwich Islands).Specimens are in the collection of the British Museum from Egypt{Col. J. Burton); the Gulf of ^uez {R. MacAndrew) ; Eed Sea,Daedalus Shoal {Lt.-Ool. Playfair); El Tor {Major MacDonald);Seychelles {Dr. E. P. Wright); Ceylon, Galle {Dr. W. Ondaatje);Balabac Straits {Smithsonian Institute, Wdl'es Expedition) ; NewGuinea {Dr. Bleelcers Coll.) ; Philippine Islands, Guimaras {Cuming),designated C. hirtipes by Adams and White : Keeling or CocosIslands {Lt. Burnahy, li.N.) ; Samoa Islands, Upolu {Rev. S. J.Whitmee), and Sandwich Islands (W. II. Pease).Perhaps the CMorodius rufescens, Targioni-Tozetti*, from Java,should be added to the synonyma of this species, from which it isdistinguished by its author by the longer, more convex carapace,with more acute areolae and marginal lateral teeth. MM. A. M.-Edwards and De Man have noticed considerable variation in thedegree of acuteness of the antero-lateral marginal teeth and adjacenttubercles in C. niger-f.* 'Crostacei delta Magenta,' p. 43, pi. iv. figs. 6-8, 10-12, 14, 18 (1877).t Vide ' Notes from the Leytlen Museum,' ii. p. 174 (1880).