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

CETTSTACEA. 271anterior margins ;in the first two pairs there is also a small spinuleat the distal end of the posterior mai'gin. Ground-colour yellowish ;the transverse imbrications of the carapace and legs are red ; thecarpus- and merus-joints of the ambulatory legs are also banded withred. Length and breadth of the carapace of the largest specimen(a female with ova) a little over 4 lines (9 millim.), of chelipede,when extended, 9^ lines (20 millim.).Two adult females and three males (one very small) are in thefirst collection from Port Denisou, 4 fms. (Nos. Ill, 122), and asmall male from Port MoUe, 5-12 fms. (No. 118) ; in the secondcollection is an adult female from Prince of Wales Channel, 7 fms.(No. 169), and two small specimens from Thursday Island, 4-5 fms,(No. 165).The description is taken from the largest female ; in the smallestspecimen the anterior margin of the front is minutely denticulated.There are in the British-Museum collection three specimens obtainedoff Cape Capricorn (15 fms.). White's typical specimen isfrom the Philippine Islands, Corregidor (Cuming).In the last consignment received from H.M.S. ' Alert ' are specimensfrom the Seychelles.This species cannot, I think, be confounded with any of thenumerous Oriental forms described by Milne-Edwards, Dana, Stimpson,and Heller.It is evidently nearly allied to P. scabrkula, Dana*, from theSooloo Sea, and to P. ']nilitaris, Heller f, from the Nicobars, in bothof which the spinulation of the carapace is different and the palmsof the chelipcdes externally pubescent. In P. scabricula the seriesof spines along the posterior margin of the wrist seem to extendalong its whole length ; and HeUer makes no mention of the prominentspine on the upper margin of the orbit in his description ofP. militaris, which in P. annulijjes seems to occupy the position ofthe obtuse-lateral frontal lobes mentioned in his description.Mr. Haswell (Catalogue, p. 146) refers certain specimens collectedat Port Denison to the Petrolisthes dentatus of M.-Edwards J ; but ashe only cites M,-Edwards's very short diagnosis and adds nothingrespecting the Australian specimens, I am unable to say whetherthey are distinguishable from the species I have designated P. haswellior from P. annulipcs. M.-Edwards's types were from Java, andseem to be distinguished from the Australian species by having theposterior margin of the carpus of the chelipedes " dentele en scie."15. Petrolisthes ? corallicola (Haswell)? (Plate XXIX. fig. C.)? Porcellana corallicola, Ilastvell, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S, Wales, vi.p. 759 (1881) ;Cat. Austr. Crust, p. 150 (1882).Carapace much longer than broad, the gastric and hepatic regions* U.S. Expl. Exp. xiii. Crust, i. p. 424, pi, xxvi. fig. 13 (1852).t Crust, in Reise der Novara, p. 75 (18(55).XHist. Nat. Crust, ii. p. 251 (1837).