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

288 COLLECTION'S FROM MELANESIA,which differ from the specimen doubtfully referred to A. ffracilipes,from Capt. St. John's Coreau collection, in the British Museum*only in having the inferior margins of the merus-joint of the largerchelipede distinctly serrated and its upper margin bluntly angulatedat the distal end, whereas in the Corean specimen the inferior marginsare nearly smooth and the upper margin ends in a distinctspine. A specimen from Ceylon (E. W. H. Holdsivorth) is somewhatintermediate in these characters. Nothing is said regarding theform of this joint by Stimpson in his original description. I mayadd that both the Japanese and Australian specimens differ fromStimpson's description, founded on examples from Tahiti, in havingthe first joint of the carpus a little shorter than the second.8. Alpheus minor, var. neptunus.Alpheus minus, Sen/, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad. i. p. 245 (1818) ;M. -Edwards, Hist. Nat. Crust, ii. p. 356 (1834) ; l)e Kay, Zool.New York Fauna, Crust, p. 26 (1844) ;White, List Crust. Brit.Mils. p. 75 (1847) ; Oihhes, Proc. Amer. Assoc. Advanc. Sci. p. 196(1851); Kingsley, Bull. U.S. Geol. Survey, p. 190 (1878).? Alpheus formosus, Gibbcs, t.c. p. 196 (1851).Alpheus neptunus, Dana, U.S. Expl. Exp. xiii. Cr. i. p. 553, pi. xxxv.tig. 5 (1852) ; Stimjison, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. p. 31 (1860),var.Alpheus charon, Heller, Sitz. Akad, Wissensch. Wien, xliv. i. p. 272,pi. iii. figs. 21, 22 (1862) ; Crust, in Reise der Nomra, p. 107(1865), var.Alpheus minor, Lockinyton, Ann. ^ Maq. Nat. Hist. ser. 5, i. p. 472(1878).Three specimens, of which two are females with ova, were obtainedat Thursday Island, 4-5 fms. (No. 165).A small specimen is in the British-Museum collection from PortJackson, between Bell's Head and Goat Island {J. Brazier).To this species also are referred specimens from the Gulf ofSuez {R. IlctcAndretv), Karachi (Karachi Museum), and Ceylon(E. W. U. Iloldsivortli), besides three specimens presented by T.Say, and therefore of typical value, from East Florida.Dana's types were from the Sooloo Sea, and Stimpson records itfrom Ousima and Hong Kong.I can find nothing, either in the descriptions of authors or in iihespecimens I have examined, to warrant the s])ecific separation of theOriental from the American species. The ocular spines and rostrumare, however, somewhat shorter and more triangulate in the Floridanexamples than in the Oriental form ; and as Kingsley notes a similardistinction between specimens occurring on the Eastern and WesternAmerican coasts, I retain Dana's name for the Oriental variety. Onthe American coasts it is recorded by Kingsley from North Carolinato the Bermudas on the east, and at Pearl Islands Bay, off Panama,on the west.* Vide Proc. Zool. Soc. p. 55 (1879).