A BATTLEDORE FRONT 71 



and belonging to the British fauna as well as the Neapoli- 

 tan in which it first was named. Another Mediterranean 

 species, Portunus longipes, Risso, which is also found on 

 British coasts, and which is figured and described by Bell 

 in the ' British Stalk-eyed Crustacea,' p. 361, is now called 

 Bathynectes longipes. 



Family 4>.-^-Podophthalmidce. 



The carapace is widest anteriorly, with the ' front ' 

 very narrow, spatuliform, and inflexed. The orbits are 

 extremely large, and the eye-stalks greatly elongated, occu- 

 pying nearly the whole width of the carapace. 



Podophthalmus , Lamarck, 1801, contains but one 

 recent species, the widely distributed Indo-Pacific Podoph- 

 thalmus vigil, Fabricius. The long eye-stalks almost 

 meet at their bases, and consequently the ' front ' is there 

 almost linear, but it is prolonged for a short distance below 

 and transversely dilated, so that, if straightened out, it 

 might be compared to a battledore, or a broad-bladed 

 knife, a spatula, whence the expression spatuliform has 

 been applied to it. The great breadth of the short cara- 

 pace, the very large denticulate chelipeds, and the unusual 

 though not unparalleled length of the eye-stalks, make 

 this a conspicuous and attractive species. According to 

 Miers (1886) the only other genus that can claim a place 

 in this family is Eupliylax, Stimpson, 1860, the name of 

 which, meaning a good watchman, corresponds with the 

 family character. 



Legion 2. Cyclinea. 



The carapace is more or less orbiculate. 



Acanthocyclus, Milne-Edwards and Lucas, 1843, has 

 for its type species Acanthocyclus Gayi, which occurs com- 

 monly 011 the shores of Chili and Patagonia, and in the 

 Straits of Magellan. In this the eye-peduncles are short ; 

 no longitudinal ridges are developed upon the endostome ; 

 the ' front ' is rather narrow, with a prominent median 

 lobe ; in the third maxillipeds the third joint is much longer 

 than the small fourth one; the pleon of the male is narrow 



