352 CRAYFISHES. 



1 doubt if this is the specimen figured by Mihie Edwards: he gives as the 

 length of the body, two inches; the figure, which is said to be Ufe size, is 56 mm. 

 long. 



Dr. Giuseppe Nobili ' also has examined the same cotype belonging to the 

 Paris Museum and is con\inced that it belongs to the same species as a male 

 specimen, 66 mm. long, in the Museum of Natural History of Genoa, said to 

 have been collected by D'Albertis in 1872 on the little island of Sorong in the 

 Strait of Galevo, northwestern coast of New Guinea. Perhaps a misplacement of 

 labels has occurred in this case; the extraordinary distribution of this species 

 implied by the nominal locality label accompanying the Genoa specimen, as well 

 as the nature of the islet of Sorong, make it probable that the specimen was in 

 reality secured at Sydney, Australia, where D'Albertis collected in 1873. 



Astacopsis australasiensis may turn out to be nothing but an immature 

 stage of A. spinifera. 



ASTACONEPHROPS ALBERTISII Nobili. 



Aslaconciiliiops albrrtinii NoniLi, Annali Miis. Civ. Storia Nat. Geneva, 1899, 40, p. 244; Rollclino dci 

 Miisci ili Zoologia cd Anatomia Coniparata di Torino, June 9, 1903, 18. p. 1. 



The genus Astaconephrops, with its one species alhertisii, based on a single 

 female specimen in tlie Museum of Genoa which is said to have come from 

 Katau on the southern coast of New Guinea, needs further elucidation. Accord- 

 ing to Nobili the margins of the rostrum (which in a general way resembles the 

 rostrum of Paranephrops) are continued back, in the shape of two keels, over 

 the carapace to the cervical groove; the abdominal segments are produced into 

 points laterally; the inner branch of the last pair of abdominal appendages is 

 furnished with a rib or keel on the dorsal face, terminating in a spine near the 

 centre of the branch; the chelae are long and slender and on account of the 

 elevation of the middle of the two faces appear subprismatical ; the carpus is 

 cylindrical, or rather depressed, and armed on the inner side with a sharp spine 

 concealed in a large tuft of hairs; the inner margin of the palm is furnished with 

 minute teeth, all the rest of the palm being smooth; the fingers are unarmed, 

 but provided with hairs along their cutting edges. 



From the description of this animal given by Nobili one would infer a com- 

 bination of the characters of Nephrops, Paranephroi^s and Cheraps. The 



' Contribuzioni alia Conoscenza dolla Fauna Carcinologica dcUa I'apuasia, dellc Molluclic e dell' 

 Australia. Annali del Mus. Civ. Storia Nat. Genova, 1899, 40, p. 246. 



