THE SPECIES OF AEGLA — SCHMTTT 445 



In an endeavor better to evaluate the specific characters of A. 

 odebrechtii paulensis, I besought Drs. Paulo Sawaya and Ernesto 

 Marcus, of the University of Sao Paulo, for further material of this 

 subspecies. Although it was not possible for them to obtain it, I did 

 receive some illuminating information regarding the waters of Alto 

 da Serra, the type locality, in a letter from Dr. Marcus: 



"Alto da Serra is a mountain pass, 38 km. from Sao Paulo and 22 

 km. from Santos by rail, where the high-road and the railway, after 

 having climbed the very steep coast-slope of the Serra do Mar, reach 

 the level of the highland of Sao Paulo. The brooks of Alto da Serra 

 chiefly fall in cascades down the coast-slope to the narrow lowland 

 of Santos, but some of them also enter the system of the Tiete River 

 that springs in the Serra do Mar, 15 km. distant from the sea, and 

 flows westward through the city of Sao Paulo and the interior of 

 the state. The mouth of the Tiete in the Parana is 650 km. distant 

 from the coast." 



Our neotype of A. odebrechtii is labeled as from Santa Catherina 

 without particulars, but more recent specimens most helpfully pro- 

 vided by Dr. Carlos Moriera, through the kindness of his good friend 

 Dr. G. Kuhlmann, of Blumenau, are from that place in the State 

 of Santa Catharina. One cannot ascertain from which particular 

 watershed, Atlantic slope or westward slope of the Serra do Mar, 

 Fritz Miiller's original specimens were taken. 



From what Dr. Marcus had to say about Alto do Serra and from 

 what we now know of the occurrence of A. odebrechtii at Blumenau, 

 it may be that the forms with the Andean type of rostrum in east- 

 central Brazil are confined to watercourses draining into the Atlantic 

 Ocean direct. 



We need not only a great deal of additional material from all 

 parts of the country but, along with it, much more complete locality 

 and environmental data than has been available heretofore before 

 we can hope to elucidate the distributional and taxonomic problems 

 that have been raised by this manifestly preliminary study. 



CHARACTERS USED IN DIAGNOSTIC KEY AND SPECIFIC 

 DESCRIPTIONS (Fig. 41) 



It is little wonder that the genus Aegla has been considered mono- 

 typic by so many authorities. In a general way and in many par- 

 ticulars all Aeglas bear a very close resemblance to one another, but 

 there is diversity of form of the cheliped, shape and armature of 

 the orbit, proportion of the carapace and rostrum, relative develop- 

 ment of the anterolateral spines, hepatic lobes, cardiac area, and areola, 

 revealing differences of a kind that can no longer be explained merely 

 as variations of a single species. 



