22 Annals of the South African Museum. 



composite coloured drawing in Herbst's plate 61, fig. 1, represents 

 certainly no known crustacean, and Milne-Edwards (Hist. Nat. 

 Crust., vol. ii., p. 237, 1837) speaks of it as an imaginary species, 

 writing the name as Cancer megistus, Herbst, and Pagurus megistus, 

 Olivier, while recognising its approximation to Olivier's P. punctu- 

 latiis. Miers (Crust, of H.M.S. Alert, p. 555, 1884) on the same 

 ground rejects Adam White's identification. But in this matter 

 injustice has been done to Herbst. For not only is his description 

 of the species free from acceptance of the faulty tail-piece, but he 

 seems to be unaware of it, for he says : " The hind body is thick, and 

 has above six plates ; these are pale red with white brown-ringed 

 spots ; the double claw at the end is again dark red with white 

 spots." No one would speak of the uropods displayed in the figure 

 as a double claw. Moreover, Herbst's description is included in a 

 special section of his work devoted to the " Weichschwanze," or 

 soft-tailed crustaceans, which he notes as having been grouped by 

 Fabricius under the name Pagurus. This fourth part of his third 

 volume was the last which Herbst lived to publish, and in the second 

 section of it, which contains his Cancer megistos, he admits that the 

 subject is in need of further study. Alcock remarks that " this is 

 the largest species of the true PaguridaB of the Indian fauna," so 

 that Herbst's name for it was quite appropriate, and it seems fail- 

 that it should be reinstated. 



Henderson (Trans. Linn. Soc. London, Zool., Ser. 2, vol. v.,pt. 10, 

 p. 419, 1893), though retaining the name P. punctulatus, says, "the 

 Cancer megistos figured by Herbst is undoubtedly a representation 

 of the present species, but the draughtsman has supplied it with an 

 altogether fanciful abdomen." 



The two descriptions given by Olivier differ in that his P. punctu- 

 latus from the Isle of Timor has a little median tooth on the front of 

 the carapace of which the P. megistos specimen from the Cape is 

 devoid, and in that to this latter he attributes eye-peduncles little 

 elongate, while in the Timor specimen they are said to be thick and 

 tolerably long. 



PAGUKUS ARROSOR (Herbst). 



1796. Cancer arrosor, Herbst, Naturg. Krabben u. Krebse, vol. ii., 

 pt. 6, p. 170, pi. 43, fig. 1. 



1802. Pagurus strigosus, Bosc., Hist. Nat. Crust., vol. ii., p. 77, pi. 11, 



fig. 3, and P. arrosor, p. 80. 



1803. Pagurus striatus, Latreille, Hist. Nat. Crust, et Insectes, 



vol. vi., p. 163, and P. arrosor, p. 170. 



