174 Bulletin, Vanderbilt Marine Museum, Vol. Ill 



fourth of it reaching beyond the distal margin of the scaphocerite. 

 It is more regularly cylindrical than that of 8. minus. The scaphocerite 

 has the scale regularly oval, 5.5 to 6.5 times as long as wide, the distal 

 margin rounded, ciliated; the lateral spine is thick, acuminate and 

 does not extend beyond the distal margin of the scale, while in S. 

 minus it is longer. 



The female great chela is about 18 mm. long, 6.3 mm. greatest 

 length; the upper like a parrot's beak, about 3.6 mm. long, the tip 

 horny. The palm tapers more proximally than in S. minus. The 

 small chela is approximately a third of the larger in size with the 

 fingers four-fifths as long as the palm and slenderer than are those 

 of S. minus. 



The second legs have the merus elongate, four and one-fourth times 

 as long as its greatest width ; the carpus one and one-fourth times as 

 long as the merus, cylindrical, multiarticulate, consisting of one very 

 long joint followed by three subequal, short ones, and another article 

 twice as long as the preceding short one; the propodus is one and 

 one-third times the length of the last carpal article with the fingers 

 weak, bristly. 



The third, fourth and fifth pairs of legs are similar except that the 

 meral joints of the third leg are wider in ratio to their length than 

 are those of the fourth leg, while the latter is a little wider than that 

 of the fifth leg. The merus of the third leg is three and one-half times 

 its greatest width ; the carpus is about half as long as the merus ; the 

 propodus is about three-fourths as long as the merus and armed on its 

 inferior lateral margin with seven articulated spines; the dactyl is 

 short, scarcely one-fourth the length of the propodus, curved, with 

 deeply bifid tip. 



The present female is carrying about 150 to 200 oval eggs. 

 Synonymy. — Alpheus saulcyi var. brevicarpus Herrick, Mem. Nat. 



Acad. Sci., vol. V, p. 383, 1891. 

 Synalpheus brevicarpus Coutiere, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 36, p. 51, 

 text fig. 29, a to t', 1909. — Schmitt, Bijdragen tot de dierkunde, 

 Natura artis magistra, Amsterdam, 23E, Afl., 1924, p. 67. 



Synalpheus minus (Say). 



Plate 63. 



Type: "Inhabits coasts of the southern states and east Florida"; 

 deposited in the Philadelphia Academy, 1818. 



Distribution: A reef-dweller in the West Indian region, found 

 abundantly from Florida, the Bahamas, Porto Rica, Bermudas, and at 

 Bahia, Brazil. Two subspecies of this form have been described. 



