320 ME. J. E. HENDEESON — A CONTEIBUTION 



before I left ludia, liy Mr. Haly, of tlie Colombo Museum, the second a small series 

 of littoral forms, presented to the British Museum by Mr. H. Nevill. 



Prom all these sources I have been able to identify two hundred and eighty-nine 

 species, of which thirty-three are described as new to science, including two which are 

 reo-arded as the types of new genera. The number of new species is perhaps smaller 

 than might be expected in a collection the size of that reported on, but I may state that 

 want of time has compelled me to set aside a considerable number, either not yet 

 identified or believed to be new. In certain of the larger genera, e. g. Pilumnus, Leti- 

 C06W', and Alphens, 1 have attempted to name only the better kuown forms; for, till 

 someone a\ itli a(;eess to types provides us with a revision of these groups, the determi- 

 nation of many of the species must remain uncertain, if not impossible. The material 

 at my disposal has enabled me to reduce several previously constituted species to the 

 rank of synonyms, and work of this kind is perhaps quite as important as adding to the 

 list of known forms. Space and other considerations have forced me to make my 

 remarks concerning previously known species as brief as possible, and 1 have only 

 attempted to record the publications in which these are originally or most fully described, 

 or where their synonymy is discussed ; while, in regard to distribution, I have merely 

 indicated the chief localities in which they have been previously found, and in the case 

 of the less perfectly known species have added the authorities for these. 



The limited knowledge we possess in regard to most groups of the Invertebrate fauna 



of India has more than once been commented on, and is notew orthy considering the 



length of time that the country has been inhabited by Europeans ; indeed, as regards 



Crustacea, up to a comparatively recent date, there was less definite knowledge of 



the Indian fauna than of the fauna of many other Asiatic and Australasian countries. 



The older writers are often extremely vague in the localization of their species, but there 



can be little doubt that a large proportion of the Crustacea recorded under such general 



terms as " Seas of Asia," " Eastern Seas," or " East Indies," came originally from. India. 



Eabricius and Ilerbst, towards the end of last century, described a considerable number 



of Indian species, and at a later period collections, chiefly from Pondicherry, found their 



way to Paris, and some of tlie species are recorded by Milne-Edwards, in his well-known 



' Histoiie jMaturelle des Crustaces." Comparatively few English naturalists in India 



appear to have paid any attention to this group, but collections, both comparatively small, 



were made by General Hardwicke and Colonel Sykes, and the first of these collections 



is frequently referred to by White in his List of the Crustacea in tlie British Museum. 



In more recent times the late Sir Walter Elliot, of the Madras Civil Service, formed a 



collection on the Coromandel coast which passed into the hands of the late Mr. Spence 



Bate, who refers to a few of the species in his Report on the ' Challenger ' Macrura. 



The work of Professor Wood-Mason, Superintendent of the Indian Museum, Calcutta, 



is well known ; during the last twenty years he has published valuable papers, more 



especially on the Telpluisidije, and during the past year a Report on the deep-sea 



Crustacea from the Bay of Bengal, taken byll.M.S. ' Investigator,' in which a number 



of new forms are described. 



In 1857 the Austrian frigate ' Novara,' on a scientific voyage round the world, touched 



