1 1 1 



Plesionika Bate. 



The srenus Plesionika Bate, with which the genus Nothocaris Bate is united and which 

 contains at present nearly 30 species ] ) and 3 varieties, is represented in the "Siboga" collections 

 by eight species, of which only three were already known to occur in the Indian Archipelago: 

 Pies. martia (A. M.-Edw.) var. semilaevis Bate, unidens Bate and binoculiis Bate. The catch 

 made by the "Siboga" proved to be very interesting. The two largest representatives of this 

 genus are Pies. martia (A. M.-Edw.) and Pies. longipes (A. M.-Edw.), which both attain a 

 length of 190 mm. Of the former the variety semilaevis, described by Spence Bate as a proper 

 species, was collected at ten different Stations in no less than 400 specimens, of the latter, 

 Pies. longipes (A. M.-Edw.), a form discovered by the "Blake" in 18S1 in the West-Indies 

 but since that year never taken again, no less than nine well-preserved adult specimens were 

 captnred near the Kei-islands, which, however, seem to belong to a distinct variety. The five 

 specimens of Pies. binoculiis (Bate), collected by this expedition, are full-grown, twice as large 

 as those that were taken by the "Challenger" ; one of the eight species, finally, proved to be 

 new to science. 



Five species are found in the Mediterranean besides a variety subtilirostris Riggio of 

 the indian Pies. ocellus (Bate). Pies. capreensis Lo Bianco, the smallest species of this genus 

 excepting Pies. spiniserrata (Bate), occurs off the island of Capri, the four others are Pies. 

 heteroearpus (A. Costa) and Gigliolii (Senna), that are both confined to the Mediterranean, 

 furthermore Pies. martia (A. M.-Edw.) and geniculata (A. M.-Edw.), that are more widely 

 distributed. Pies. martia, indeed, occurs also in the east Atlantic, west and southwest of Ireland, 

 in the Gulf of Gascony and along the spanish coast, but it has also been observed of Lion's 

 Head, South Africa, in the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, the Andaman Sea, in Sagami 

 Bay, Japan, near the Hawaiian Islands and even in the Tasman Sea! Though this species proves 

 thus to be very widely distributed, its range is not cosmopolitan, for it is not yet known from 

 the western Atlantic nor from the west coast of the New World. Pies. geniculata (A. M.-Edw.) 

 was taken by the "Travailleur", Julv ic/ h 1882, but a list of the Stations of this expedition has 

 never been published as far as I know; this species was afterwards obtained by the "Challenger" 

 off Pernambuco, Brazil. Besides this species also Pies. Parfaiti (A. M.-Edw.) and Pies. qnadri- 

 deutata (A. M.-Edw.) were discovered by the "Travailleur". 



Pies. ensis (A. M.-Edw.) occurs in the West-Indies off the islands of Barbados, Martinique 

 and Grenada, but has also been observed in the Andaman Sea and even near the Hawaiian 

 Islands, being almost as widely distributed as Pies. martia. Pies. acanthonotus (S. I. Smith) 

 and Pies. teuuipes (S. I. Smith) represent this genus on the east coast of the United States, 

 both are species of rather small size. In a rare work published by A. Milne-Edwards in 1883, 

 entitled : "Recueil de Figures de Crustacés nouveaux on peu connus", a Pandalus teuuipes 



1) Including two species. Pandalus quadridentatus A. M.-Edw. and Pand. Parfait! A. M.-Edw., obtained by the "Travailleur" 

 in the summer of 1882, and Pand. teuuipes A. M.-Edw., of which it is doubtful whether they belong to this genus or to another, because 

 it is not known whether they have epipods on the thoracic legs or not, while Pa//./, tenuipes A. M.-Edw. (Recueil de Figures de Crust. 

 Xouv. 18S3, pi. 24) seems to differ from Smith's tenuipes^ which is a tiue Plesionika. Of Pa//J. exiguus Rathb. and Pand. spini 

 Rathb. it is likewise still unknown whether they bear epipods or not, but these forms no doubt belong to Plesionika, because Pies. 

 rostricrescentis (Bate) and Pies. bifurca Alcock & Anderson are said to be respectively the nearest related species. 



