scale; fingers about one-third length of palm, 

 spines at tips of fingers darkened; carpus and 

 hand of nearly equal length. Second legs much 

 longer, slender; chela small; carpus divided into 

 about 30 joints, last joint longest. Third to fifth 

 legs not so slender as second ; dactyls with a few 

 coarse spines on inner border. 



Abdomen smooth; posterolateral angle of fifth 

 and sixth segments acute. Telson tapering to 

 nearly truncate tip with a minute median projec- 

 tion flanked by two long, slender spines and 

 outside these a short spine on each side; armed 

 dorsally with two pairs of dorsal spines, anterior 

 pair at one-third length, posterior pair at two- 

 thirds length. Uropodal exopods with outer 

 margin ending in two distinct teeth, between these 

 a slender movable spine. 



Measurements. — Length of body: males, 28 to 

 54 mm.; ovigerous females, 38 to 55 mm. (Wass, 

 1955, in part). 



Variations. — Individuals from the northern 

 extreme of the range differ in some respects from 

 those in South America (Holthuis, 1959). The 

 rostrum in South American specimens has four 

 to seven dorsal teeth, and in specimens from the 

 United States, four or five. Some southern speci- 

 mens have stylocerites nearly as long as the basal 

 antennular articles. In southern specimens, the 

 tip of the lamella on the antennal scale is more 

 truncate than in northern specimens. The second 

 leg in Guiana material is more slender than in 

 northern material, and the number of articulations 

 in the carpus is higher, 33-37 as opposed to 

 27-31. 



Color. — Translucent white with beautiful longi- 

 tudinal and transverse markings of red. 



Habitat. — Commonly found on stone jetties or 

 among hydroids growing on piles or buoys; sur- 

 face to 16 fathoms. 

 Type locality. — Key West, Fla. 

 Known range. — Lower Chesapeake Bay to 

 Port Aransas, Tex.; Surinam; French Guiana; 

 Mamanguape, Sao Paido, Brazil. 



Remarks. — Ovigerous females have been re- 

 ported in January from Florida and in May from 

 the Guianas (Holthuis, 1959; Wass, 1955). They 

 have been collected in April and August from 

 North Carolina, and in August from Louisiana. 



MARINE DECAPOD CRUSTACEANS OF THE CAROLINAS 

 763-049 0^65 7 



Subgenus Exhippolysmata Stebbing, 1915 



Stebblng, 1015, p. 94. 



Hippolysmata (Exhippolysmata) oplophoroides Holthuis 



Figure 69 



Hippolysmata (Exhippolysmata) oplophoroities Holthuis 1948 

 p. 1106.— 1959, p. 112. fig. 17. 



Recognition characters.— Rostrum long, slender, 

 directed somewhat upward, reaching beyond an- 

 tennal scale by nearly half of length; basal por- 

 tion elevated into a crest bearing 9 to 10 closely 

 placed teeth, one tooth some distance behind 

 crest, remainder of upper margin with 1 to 6 

 widely separated teeth; ventral margin with 10 

 to 14 teeth. Carapace, coarsely pitted; anterior 

 margin produced into a slight lobe below eye 

 closely followed ventrally by an antennal spine; 

 a pterygostomian spine at anterolateral angle. 

 Eyes well developed. Basal article of antennular 

 peduncle with stylocerite rather broad and 

 pointed, reaching beyond middle of article; second 

 article somewhat longer than third; upper fla- 

 gellum simple with about 20 to 25 basal joints 

 thickened, hairy below. Antennal scale almost 



Figure 69. — Hippolysmata (Exhippolysmata) oplophoro- 

 ides Holthuis. A. anterior portion of body in lateral 

 view, x 3.5; B, antennal scale. X 4; C, second leg, X 4; 

 D, abdomen in lateral view, X 3.5; E. telson and right 

 uropod in dorsal view, X 3.5 (after Holthuis, 1948). 



85 



