476 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



bottom available, as the sea off this coast is very shallow up to ioo miles off shore, and 

 the swarms were seen from the shore line out to water 70 fathoms deep. It is note- 

 worthy in this connection that the allied anomuran species Plenroncodes planipes is 

 pelagic when adult and occurs in similar enormous swarms, as detailed above (p. 472). 



NOTE ON THE HISTORY OF THE SPECIES 



I place here a summary of the somewhat involved literature relating to the specific 

 distinctions of M. subrugosa and M. gregaria and its Grimothea stage. 



In 1793 Fabricius described the specimens of the immature pelagic form taken by 

 Banks in the South Atlantic (latitude 37 30') during Cook's first voyage. These he 

 named Galathea gregaria. In 1820 Leach placed the species in a new genus which he 

 named Grimothea, its chief distinguishing character being the foliaceous external 

 maxilliped. In this he was followed by Desmarest in 1825. In 1830 Guerin Meneville, 

 in his report on the results of the voyage round the world of ' La Coquille ', recorded and 

 figured specimens from Callao Harbour. Milne Edwards, in 1837, thought he could 

 distinguish the specimen figured by Guerin Meneville from the typical Grimothea 

 gregaria by the small size of the telson and proposed the name Grimothea Duperreii for 

 Guerin Meneville 's specimens. This is only a synonym. 



In 1843 the Erebus and Terror Expedition brought back from the Auckland Islands 

 specimens of an adult bottom-living form with cylindrical external maxillipeds. These 

 were named Galathea subrugosa, but not described, by White in 1847, in his list of 

 Crustacea in the British Museum. The plates for the report on the Crustacea of the 

 expedition, including figures of the species, were at that time engraved, but they were 

 not published until 1874 (Miers, 1874, Plate 3). Dana, in 1852, in his Crustacea of the 

 United States Exploring Expedition described a specimen from Tierra del Fuego and 

 referred it with doubt to White's M. subrugosa. He had apparently seen the unpublished 

 plates of the Erebus and Terror report to which he makes reference. He also recorded 

 abundant specimens of Grimothea gregaria from Tierra del Fuego. He described and 

 figured both forms. During the voyage of H.M.S. ' Nassau ', 1866-9, R. O. Cunningham 

 (1871) found Galathea subrugosa common in the Straits of Magellan and off the west 

 coast of Patagonia. He also recorded Grimothea gregaria from the Falkland Islands and 

 from between the Magellan Straits and the Falkland Islands. 



In 1874 the report on the Crustacea of the Erebus and Terror Expedition was 

 published, and in it Miers briefly described Munida subrugosa. He stated that in his 

 opinion the specimens figured by Dana were specifically distinct as they differed in the 

 number and arrangement of the spines on the carapace and in the shape of the hands. 

 No mention is made of Grimothea gregaria, though Cunningham in 1871 had stated that 

 he had seen a sketch of the species by Dr Hooker done from a specimen taken at the 

 south of Tierra del Fuego during the Erebus and Terror Expedition. Filhol in 1874 

 recorded a large series of specimens of Munida subrugosa from Campbell Island and 

 stated that they were identical with specimens from Port Famine (Straits of Magellan). 

 He also recorded the immature form from Stewart Island and Cook Strait, and dis- 



