624 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. ii8 



Pokou (see Cadenat and Marchal), none of those collections, except 

 the fishes and echinoderms, have been studied extensively. Melliss 

 (1875) recorded the foUowmg six decapod crustaceans: Palaemon 

 forceps {'? = Brachycarpus biunguiculatus) ; Palinurus, species ? (= 

 IPanulirus echinatus); Scyllarus latus {= Scyllarides herklotsii); 

 Pagurus bernhardus (I =Dardanus imperator) ; Dromia vulgaris {~D. 

 erythropus); and Varuna atlantica {1= Planes cyaneus). 



Miers (1880) added Enoplometopus dentatus (?=£'. antillensis) 

 and (1881) described the apparently endemic Pagurus imperator 

 (=Dardanus imperator) . 



Cunningham (1910) brought the list of known decapods to 11 with 

 the following additions: Pagurus arrosor (=Dardanus arrosor); 

 Grapsus grapsu^; and Plagusia depressa. 



A twelfth species, Alhunea guerinii (—A. carabus), was cited by 

 Stebbing (1914). 



The present study was based on collections of 584 specimens received 

 between 1958 and 1964 from Arthur Loveridge, fonnerly curator of 

 herpetology at the Museiun of Comparative Zoology, Harvard Uni- 

 versity, and now a resident of St. Helena. These specimens pre- 

 sumably represent all but 3 of the decapods previously known from 

 the island plus 11 additional species — 3 of them apparently unde- 

 scribed. A major part of these collections was made by Mr. 

 Loveridge, at considerable personal discomfort, from a buoy and its 

 attached cable anchored in 75 meters off Rupert's Bay. The oppor- 

 tunity to sample this interesting assemblage of organisms was afforded 

 once each year when the buoy was replaced; the cable was renewed 

 every other year. The remainder of the collections was made at the 

 few narrow breaks in the precipitous cliffs of the island where shore 

 collecting is possible, or they were obtained from fishermen and visit- 

 ing skindivers. 



The Loveridge collections contain one species not included in the 

 following systematic account, a spiny lobster represented by the dried 

 skeleton of an abdomen found on the beach at Sandy Bay on Decem- 

 ber 22, 1959. Following my failure to identify these fragments, L. B. 

 Holthuis pointed out their obvious similarity to the abdomen of 

 Panulirus homarus (Linnaeus, 1758). As that species is reasonably 

 common on the coast of South Africa, the fragments found at Sandy 

 Bay might have been washed ashore from a passing ship, or they 

 might have originated in a shipment of frozen lobster tails imported 

 to St. Helena from South Africa. There is no reason to believe that 

 the species belongs to the local fauna. 



The three species pre\dously recorded from St. Helena but not 

 represented in the Loveridge collections have been included in the 

 systematic account, in order to make the faunal list as complete as 



