REPORT ON THE CRUSTACEA MACRURA. 545 



Milne-Edwards records his species from New Holland, and de Haan his from Japan. 



Observations. — The specimen from Station 234, which was laden with ova, has lost 

 the chela?, but agrees in all other respects with the other specimens. As is often the 

 case it is rather more robust than the male. 



Some drawings of what appears to be this species, in Sir Walter Elliot's collection, 

 show the variability of colour. One is beautifully marked with cream-coloured spots on 

 a general ground of red, with deeper dots of the same. Another is a dark olive-green, 

 dark on the back and shading to buff on the claws. 



Atyheus acuto-femoratus, Dana (PL XCVII. fig. 2). 



Alpheus acuto-femoratus, Dana, U.S. Exp] or. Exped., Crust., p. 550, pi. xxxvi. fig. 2. 



Carapace anteriorly produced to a sharp-pointed rostrum, with a longitudinal 

 groove on each side, separating it from the orbital lobes, which are anteriorly produced 

 to a very small point. 



The first pair of antennae carries a stylocerite that is about half the length of the 

 first joint of the peduncle, and terminates in two flagella that are slightly longer 

 than the peduncle ; the shorter is the more robust, and it exhibits a tendency to a bifid 

 termination, one branch being short and the other abruptly truncate. 



The second pair carries the rudiment of a tooth on the basal joint, and supports a 

 scaphocerite that is subequal in length with the peduncle of the first pair. 



The first pair of pereiopoda is asymmetrical, that on the left being the larger, 

 resembling closely in form that of Atyheus avarus and Alpheus edwardsii ; that on 

 the left also resembles the same limb in Alpheus echvardsii," but has the fingers of 

 the chela somewhat shorter. The second pair of pereiopoda is longer than the third, 

 and the first joint of the carpos is longer than the second. 



Length, 21 mm. (0'8 in.). 



Habitat. — Station 186, September 8, 1874; lat. 10° 30' S., long. 142° 18' E., 

 between Cape York and the Arrou Islands ; depth, 8 fathoms ; bottom, coral mud. 

 Dredged. 



Observations. — Dana says of his species — " Length nine lines. The hands of the 

 specimen are gone, and we are not sure that the species should not be in the preceding 

 division" (" a Orbitse margo inermis," instead of in " b Orbitse margo spinula denteve 

 armatus," where he places it), "although its general characters are more like those in which 

 the lower margin of the hand is straight, it is peculiar in having a spine at the apex of 

 both the second and third joints of the third and fourth pairs of legs, the fifth pair of legs 

 is more narrow than the fourth." A drawing taken from the living animal, in the late 



(ZOOL. CHALL. EXP. PAET LII. 1887.) Eff 69 



