88 CEYLON PEAEL OYSTER REPORT. 



Athanas, Leach, 1813. 

 Athanas nitescens, Leach. 



Athanas nitescens, Leach, ' Edin. Encycl.,' vol. vii., p. 432, 1813. 

 Athanas veloculus, Sp. Bate, ' " Challenger " Macrura,' p. 529, 1888. 



Locality : Cheval Paar (Station XLVIL), 1 specimen. 



This specimen clearly belongs to the well-known species in which must be 

 included according to Coutiere Bate's species Athanas veloculus. 



This record is of interest, inasmuch as the distribution of this species up to the 

 present has been limited, so far as I can ascertain, to the Atlantic and Mediterranean. 



General distribution : Atlantic coasts of America, Cape Verd Islands, north-west 

 Europe, Mediterranean, Ceylon. 



Athanas orientalis, n. sp. Plate II., fig. 10. 



Localities : Cheval Paar (Station XLVIIL), 2 specimens ; Muttuvaratu Paar 

 (Station VI.), 1 specimen; Coral reef, Gulf of Manaar (Station LIV.), 2 specimens ; 

 west of Periya Paar (Station LXL), 2 specimens. 



This species is in many respects very closely allied to Athanas dimorphus, 

 Ortmann, and A. minikoensis, Coutiere, but there are differences in the form of the 

 extra- and infra-orbital spines, as well as in the form of the 1st pair of legs which 

 lead me to place it in a new species. 



The rostrum extends as far as the end of the 2nd joint of the antennular peduncle. 

 The infra-corneal spine reaches slightly beyond the eye, and the extra-corneal spine 

 just reaches to the anterior end of the eye, so that it is difficult to make out in side 

 view. There is no supra-corneal spine. 



The antennule has the 3 joints of its peduncle subequal, and its scale reaches as 

 far forward as the end of the 2nd peduncular joint and the tip of the rostrum. The 

 autennal peduncle reaches to the end of the 2nd joint of the antennular peduncle, and 

 its scale, which is very broad, reaches slightly beyond the end of the antennular 

 peduncle. In the small leg of the female the carpopodite and the propodite are about 

 equal in length, but the latter is more robust. The meropodite is one and a half times 

 as long as the carpopodite. The ischiopodite has a long delicate spine at the distal end 

 of its dorsal border, and there are five smaller spines along the same border. This 

 is the only specimen bearing the 1st pair of legs, so that it is not possible to 

 compare these appendages in the male. 



This species differs from the two allied species in the length of the rostrum and 

 also in the relative lengths of the extra- and infra-orbital spines, as well as in the 

 length and robustness of the joints of the small leg. The other two species are 

 devoid of spines on the ischiopodite of that limb. 



