SYSTEMATIC DISCUSSION. 



Order: STOMATOPODA. 

 Family: Squillidae. 



Genus : GONODACTYLUS Latrielle. 

 Gonodactylus oerstedii Hansen. 



Plate 1. 



Type: Hansen simply designated this species as from the West 

 Indies, briefly distinguishing it from the Indo-Paeific form. 



Distribution: A member of the reef fauna of the "West Indian 

 faunal region. 



Material examined: Three specimens taken in dragnet, Bimini, 

 Bahamas, November, 1924; two specimens, Florida Keys, February, 

 1924; one specimen, Florida Keys, March, 1924; one specimen, taken 

 in drag-net, 2 fms,. Port Antonio, Jamaica, February, 1926, by the 

 '^Ara/' William K. Vanderbilt, commanding. 



Color : In life this species is a vivid grass green, with peacock blue 

 markings on the retrochela and caudal fan. 



Technical description : Rostrum a subrectangular plate with the 

 distal angles rounded and produced to a very slender, acute spine in 

 the median line. Carapace also rectangular, smooth, except for the 

 lateral longitudinal groove on each side. Frontal margin on each side 

 of the rostrum and anterolateral angle evenly rounded; lateral mar- 

 gins subparallel, posterior margin relatively straight. 



The second thoracic segment is narrow, short, with the lateral mar- 

 gin closely appressed, semiconcealed beneath the reflexed retrochela; 

 the third and fourth segments are longer, subequal, with the lateral 

 margin bluntly rounded; the fifth thoracic segment is longer but its 

 epimeral plate is narrower, more tapered; the first three abdominal 

 segments are subequal, except that the first segment bears at its an- 

 terior angle a flexible lobed epimeral process; the lateral margins of 

 all three segments are bordered by a flat carina which is wider anter- 

 iorly ; the fourth and fifth abdominal segments are successively longer 



(21) 



