220 Bvlletin Vanderbilt Marine Miiseum, Vol. VII 



Subfamily: Majinae 



Genus: STENOCIONOPS (Leach Mss.) Desmarest 



Stenocionops ovata (Bell) 



■f 



Plates 79 and 80 



Type: The type of Prof. Bell's Pericera ovata was a young 

 female, with a length of one inch and breadth of 6 lines (about 

 0.6 inches), and a second female, collected in the Galapagos 

 Islands, on coral sands, at a depth of 6 fathoms, by Mr. Cuming, 

 and originally deposited in the "Mus. Soc. Zool." (London). The 

 type of Miss M. J. Rathbun's Stenocionops macdonxildi, an adult 

 male, was collected in the Gulf of California, as was also her type 

 of Pericera triangidata, a young female ; both of the latter types 

 are deposited in the United States National Museum, as is also 

 sufficient material representing various growth stages to corre- 

 late the later described species as synonyms of Prof. Bell's S. 

 ovata. 



Distribution: This species has a bathymetrical occurrence 

 of from 6 to 145 fathoms and a geographical range from the 

 Gulf of California to the Bay of Panama and Galapagos Islands. 

 It is very closely related to the east American species, Stenocio- 

 nops spinosissima (de Saussure) ,^ which is known under too many 

 synonyms, ranging from off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, to 

 southern Florida, Haiti, the West Indies, the Gulf of Mexico and 

 southward to the entrance of the Bahia Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 

 in depths varying from 22 to 60 fathoms. 



Material examined : One large male, dredged at the "Alva" 

 station 13, Banco Hannibal, 40 fathoms, Isla Coiba, Point Her- 

 mosa, distant 11.5 miles, bearing 50° true, Panama, March 7, 

 1938. 



Colour: Carapace varying from rose-pink to almost scarlet 

 beneath a pilose coating of velvety brown setae ; apices of some 

 of the eroded tubercles showing lime- white ; fingers of chelipeds 

 chalky white with faint rose tints. Eyes black. 



Technical description: In the very young the carapace is 

 a long oval, with the primary spines, also rostral spines, relatively 

 more conspicuous than they are in the older adults, but forming 

 the same pattern. 



^Pericera spinosissima de Saussure, H., Revue et Mag. Zool. de Geneve, 1857, ser. 2, t. IX, 

 p. 501; Mem. Soc. Phys. Geneve, 1857, t XIV, p. 426, pi. 1. fig. 2. 



