Boone, Crustacea, Cruises of ''Eagle" and " Ara," 1921-28 61 



Family: ALBUNEIDAE. 



Genus: LEPIDOPA Stimpson. 

 Lepidopa venusta Stimpson. 



Plate 16, figs. A, B and C. 



Diagnostic characters : This species is distinguished from its ally, 

 L. scutellata by the submedian teeth of the frontal margin being 

 nearer the median tooth than is the ease in scutellatus; the feet of 

 venusta are very similar, but the dactyl of the second legs is more 

 sharply excised and the dactyli of the third and fourth legs are much 

 slenderer. 



Type : The type was taken at St. Thomas, "W. I., and is believed to 

 be no longer extant. 



Distribution: St. Thomas, Fort Macon, Beaufort, N. C, and 

 Miami Beach, Florida. 



Material examined : Nine specimens, including both sexes, taken at 

 Miami Beach, Florida, March, 1924, by William K. Vanderbilt. 



Color: In life this species is a rich old ivory, with an opalescent 

 rose sheen. The many cilia are golden yellow. 



Technical description : Carapace shield-shape, only slightly con- 

 vex, with the median longitudinal region moderately elevated, or 

 ridged, and with numerous deeply etched transverse lines, one behind 

 the frontal margin and one, the urogastric, being especially strong. 

 The frontal margin is produced to a broad, median, triangulate ros- 

 tral point, on either side of which the frontal margin is excavate 

 above the base of the ocular scale and then gently convex, forming an 

 acute, more prominent and broader triangulate tooth on each side of 

 the rostrum ; there is a short acute tooth at the anterolateral angle and 

 running in from this obliquely is a groove, ciliated ; the lateral mar- 

 gins of the carapace are uneven, slightly converged posteriorly; the 

 posterior margin is concavely excavate in the median region, thence 

 nearly straight on each side and sharply carinate. The abdomen is 

 short, with the hinder three segments flexed under the body. The 

 first segment is visible only in the median place, excavate between the 

 carapace and second segment, and is almost entirely covered with 

 stiff, short setae. The second segment is slightly wider than the cara- 

 pace, with the lateral parts wider than in the median line and form- 

 ing broad, rectangular, almost squarish plates with the distal angles 

 right-angled, the anterior and lateral margins ciliate; the third seg- 



