43 



and bv 2 varieties : this genus includes, therefore, a larger number of species than the six other 

 genera of Palinuridae taken together. All the species are inhabitants of the tropical seas, but 

 many occur moreover either a little north of the tropic of Cancer or a little south of the tropic 

 of Capricorn. The majority are found in the Indopacific. 



Panulirus Burgert (de Haan), a nice species in which the margins of the uninterrupted 

 furrows of the abdominal somites are conspicuously crenulate and the carapace very spinose, 

 occurs in the Indian Ocean and the Indian Archipelago, from Port Elisabeth and Mascate to 

 Borneo and Amboina, but its existence in the seas of Japan is still doubtful. A variety 

 megasculptus has been recorded last year by Dr. Pesta from Kischin, on the south coast of 

 Arabia. A closely related form, Panul. dasypus (Latr.), is distributed throughout the Indian 

 Archipelago, the Philippine Islands and Japan, but has also been observed in the Indian Ocean, 

 north of the Equator, near Ceylon and Sokotra. The typical Panul. japonicus (von Siebold) 

 inhabits the seas of Japan, north Formosa and the Hawaiian Islands, while the variety longipes 

 A. M.-Edw. is distributed throughout the Indian Ocean and the Indian Archipelago, from 

 Zanzibar to Tahiti. Panul. penicillatus (Oliv.), with which Panul. Ehrenbergi (Heller) is 

 apparently identical, occurs throughout the whole Indopacific from the Gulf of Akaba to Fusan 

 (Korea), the Hawaiian and Gambier Islands and the New Hebrides. Panul. bispinosus Borr., 

 still only recorded from the Loyalty Islands, has been founcled on a very young specimen, long 

 25 mm., but, according to Mr. Borradaile himself, it may have been a young example of 

 Panul. femoristriga (von Mart.), i. e. of the variety longipes of Panul. japonicus (von Siebold) and 

 it is also my opinion that Panul . bispinosus will once prove to be the young stage of another 

 knovvn species. Of all the preceding Panuliridae the abdominal somites are transversely furrowed, 

 the three species in which they are smooth, are the following. Firstly Panul. versicolor (Latr.), 

 in young specimens of which the 2 nd and 3 rd abdominal terga are still furnished with rudimentary 

 and interrupted, transverse grooves, that, however, gradually disappear in older individuals ; 

 this species, with which Panul. taeniatus of Lamarck is identical, is distributed throughout the 

 whole Indopacific from Tanga near Zanzibar and Mascate to New Britain, the Philippine Islands 

 and Japan. Panul. ornatus (Fabr.) is as widely distributed as Panul. versicolor, the last species, 

 finally, is Panul polyphagus of Herbst, described in 1796 and recorded from the coast of 

 Balutschistan, Bombay, Minikoi, Mauritius, Singapore, Java and the Samoa Islands. Of two still 

 problematical species one, Panul. spinosus (H. M.-Edw.), is supposed by Prof. Grcvel to be identical 

 with the west-indian Panul. guttaius (Latr.), but the validity of this species is maintained by 

 Prof. Bouvier, by whom an adult specimen from Pulo Condore has been referred to Panul. 

 spinosus, while it has also been recorded from Tahiti and the Pacific Islands. Panul. mar- 

 ginatus (Quoy and Gaimard), finally, from the Sandwich Islands is also still a doubtful form : 

 according to Miss Rathbun it should be related to Panul. Burgert (de Haan) and Panul. 

 dasypus (Latr.), while it is regarded by Gruvel as being perhaps a synonym of Panul. japo- 

 nicus (von Siebold). 



While this genus is not represented on the coasts of Europe, the west coast of Africa 

 is only inhabited by one single species, Panul. regius de Brito Capello, the royal Panulirus, 

 so named in commemoration of the fact that the type was discovered by the King of Portugal 



