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

CRUSTACEA. •279pace; its lateral margin armed with about 8 spinules; the joints of thechelipedes also spiuulose and hairj' ; fingers rather shorter than thepalm, minutely denticulated on their inner margins, not gaping whenclosed, with the tips incurved ; the merus- and carpus-joints of thefirst and second ambulatory legs are spinulose on their anterior marginsand one of the denticules of the inferior margin of the terminaljoint is more prominent than the others.If the Australian specimen does not belong to G. elef/ans, it maybe referable to G. lomprostris, Dana*, from the Fijis, which is veryincompletely known, which it resembles in the minute serrulatioa ofthe carapace and rostrum and the shorter fingers of the chelipedes,which are not, however, less than half the length of the palms, as inDana's description.In more than one of the specimens in the Museum collectionthe rostrum is slightly deflexed, and I think it probable that G. de-Jlexifrons, Haswell (Cat. p. 163), from Albany Passage (H.M.S.'Jlert'), should be regarded merely as a marked variety of G. elegans.23. Munida spinulifera. (Plate XXXI. fig. B.)This species is evidently nearly allied to Munida japonica, Stimpson; and it will suffice here to allude to the distinctive charactersand some other points not mentioned in Stimpson's description. Asin M. japonica, the anterior part of the gastric region is armed witha transverse series of thirteen spinules. On the sides of the carapace,at a short distance behind the spine at the outer orbital angle,is usually a single small spinule (whereas Stimpson, in his descriptiomof 31. jap)onic((, says, " Regie gastrica superficie utrinque trispinulosa").On the front of the branchial regions, just behind thecervical suture, is another small spinule not mentioned by Mr.Stimpson. The lateral margins of the carapace have about sevenspinules, inclusive of the outer orbital spine, which is ratherlong.The median spine of the rostrum (in the specimens I have examined)is considerably more than twice the length of the lateralspines, and is arcuated, with scarcely any trace of lateral denticulations.The second postabdominal segment has several spinules onits upper surface on the anterior margin. The merus, carpus,and penultimate joints of the ambulatory legs are spinulose ; thespinules on the penultimate joints usually developed only on theposterior (or inferior) margins.Three specimens, of which one (the only one having a chelipede)is a male, the two others females with ova, were obtained in theArafura Sea, 32-36 fms. (jS^o. 16U).In the specimen of M. japonica from the Corean Straits, referredto in my <strong>Report</strong> on Capt. St. John's collection f, not only are thelateral frontal spines relatively much longer (half the length of the* Crust, in U.S. Explor. Exped. xiii. p. 482, pi. xxx. fig. 11 (1852).t Proc. Zool. Soc. p. 51 (1879).