CEYLON PEARL OYSTER FISHERIES 1906 -SUPPLEMENTARY REPORTS, No. XL.l 



R E P O R T 



ON THE 



BRACHYURA 



COLLECTED I'.V 



Professor HERDMAN, at CEYLON, in 1902. 



BY 

 R. DOUGLAS LAURIE, B.A. (Oxon.), 



DEMONSTRATOR OF ZOOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL. 



[With TWO PLATES and TEXT-FIGURES.] 



INTRODUCTORY. 



The collection comprises 208 species, of which 15 are described as new, and of the 

 latter, three are referred to new genera. Of the three new genera, two are Xanthids 

 (one a large crab which I place near to Zozymus the other a curious little animal 

 with a Kraussia-like carapace and a most remarkable hand) ; the third belongs to the 

 interesting group of Rhizopinse. 



The new species belong to the following genera : Dromia (l), Tlof, (l), Achcsus (1), 

 Halimus (2), Cryptopodia (1), Doclea (1), Actcea (1), Euxanihus (1), Neptunus (2), 

 Pinnoteres (1), and the three new genera, Demania (1), Mertonia (1), and Calmania (1). 



Descriptions of some little known forms have been revised in the light of examples 

 contained in the collection. Among these may be mentioned Philyra adamsi, about 

 which there has been misunderstanding. Many of the species and even some of the 

 genera in the collection are new to the India fauna, and the majority had not 

 previously been recorded from the coast of Ceylon. 



A matter of considerable interest both general and systematic is well illustrated 

 among the Oxyrhyncha collected. I refer to the phenomenon which Geoffrey 

 Smith has recently* investigated very thoroughly in InacKus scorpio (= dorsettensis) 



* ' Mittheil. Zool. Stn. Neapel,' xvii., p. 312; see also H. A. Hagen, "N. Amer. Astacidae," in '111. Cat. 

 Mas. Comp. Zool. Harvard,' 1870; W. Faxon (1) 'Amer. Jonrn. Sci.,' xxviii., p. 42, and (2) 'Revision ,.t 

 the Astacidie,' part i., 1885, 



