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

CRUSTACEA. 525distinctively characterizing the variety Jiaani, which is connectedwith M. thalia by insensible gradations.Specimens referred by Dr. F. llichters to M. thalia, De Haan,from Fouquets, may probably belong to this variety ; but the lengthof the supraocular spines is not mentioned.12. Paramicippa asperimanus.I thus designate a series of specimens from Providence Island,19 fms. (No. 217), and a small female from the Seychelles, 4-12fms. (No. 194).These specimens in all their characters so nearly approach thetypical Paramicippa platypcs, Eiippell, from the Red Sea, of whichthey may prove to be a variety, that a detailed description is scarcelyneeded. They scarcely differ except in the form of the rostrum,which is much less deeply emarginatc at its distal extremity, withthe terminal lobes less acute ; in the slenderer chelipedes of themale, whose merus-joint is longer, wrist minutely granulated onits inner and outer surface, and palm more elongated, granulatedon its inner surface and without the characteristic coloration ofM.p>latypes : and in having the distal extremity of the dilated basalantenual joint armed with a series of spinules, which are visible fromabove between the rostrum and the orbital cavity. In this lattercharacter this species approaches Micippa pliilyra, Herbst, fromwhich it is distinguished by the dilated palms and arcuated fingersof the chelipedes in the male and much more deeply emarginatefront. It seems, in fact, to occupy an intermediate position betweenthe two forms—wbich, however, can hardly be conspecific,since an adult male in the Museum collection of M. pthih/ra, withslender feeble chelipedes, is of larger size than the males with strongdilated chelipedes of P. platiipes and P. asperimanus. The specimenfigured by Eichters * as M. pthihjra, var. latifrons, seems to be anadult male Paramicippa platyp)es. I cannot identify P. a!