48 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



DESCRIPTION OF a NEW HERMIT CRAB (CALCINUS 

 IMPERIALIS), FROM LORD HOWE ISLAND. 



By Thomas Wiiitelkgge, Zoologist. 



(Plate ix.) 



This fine handsome species is fairly common at Lord Howe Island. 

 It is generally found at or about low tide line, inhabiting tlie'shells 

 of Turbo imperialis, Gmelin. Numerous examples were obtained 

 during the visit of Mr. R. Etheridge, Junr., Mr. J. A. Thorpe, and 

 the writer, in 1887. These specimens appeared in the report on 

 "Lord Howe Island : Its Zoology and Physical Characters,'" under 

 the name of Calcinus elegmis, Milne-Edwards, the error arising 

 from a comparison with a wrongly named example in the collection. 

 Since 1887 many specimens have been received from the same 

 region, and about three years ago I obtained a living specimen 

 at Maroubra Bay, near Sydney. During the visit of the " Thetis" 

 to Lord Howe Island in March, 1898, Messrs. Etheridge and 

 Waite secured six examples, two of which are selected for illus- 

 tration and description. 



Owing to the difficulty of adequately representing Crustacea by 

 means of drawings, it was determined to reproduce the Calcinus 

 by the collotype process. I took the photographs, and avoided 

 shadows by mounting the crabs on a sheet of clear glass, placing 

 a piece of opal glass some distance behind it. A little adjustment 

 of the two sheets to the source of light threw the reflected shadows 

 quite out of the field. 



The reproduction and printing by Messrs. Morgan and Kidd, of 

 London, leave nothing to be desired. 



Calcinus imperialis, sp. nov. 



(PI. ix., figs. I -Id.) 



Anterior region of carapace strongly calcified, convex, smooth 

 and closely punctate, with a few scattered seta; arising from 

 shallow pits. There is a well marked Y shaped impression, the 

 base of which reaches to the cervical groove, and the apices are 

 bounded on each side by a short oblong depression. The front 

 has a slightly thickened border, which extends on each side of 

 the well-defined rostral process to a point between the insertion 



1 Austr. Mus. Mem., ii., 1889, p. 36. 



