ii6 MATUTA MACULATA. 



ger posteriorly but more crowded on the anterior portion 

 of the cephalothorax. 



To the characters of this species , given by Mr. Miers , 

 it may be allowed to add the following: The fourth spine 

 on the external surface of the hand is smaller than the 

 second , both in the male and the female , though in a less 

 degree in the latter. In both sexes an acute tubercle 

 is found at the external angle of the hand at the base of 

 the granular line which extends near the inferior margin , 

 proceeding upon the immobile finger ; this tubercle being 

 represented in Mat. victrix Fabr. by a stronger acute spine. 

 The larger striated plate on the inner side of the hands 

 prolonged in the direction of the stripes. The hands of 

 both sexes nearly quite similar to each other. 



Matuta banksii Miers has been recorded from the In- 

 dian Archipelago (Amboina , Celebes , Bali , Ceram , Timor , 

 Sanghir), New Guinea , the Philippine Islands and the 

 China seas. 



Except in its different coloration , this form of Matuta 

 is most closely allied to Mat. picta Hess (Miers). The 

 males however may be easily distinguished by the acute, 

 triangular , fourth spine on the outer ridge of the hand , 

 it being obtuse and truncate in Mat. picta , but when I com- 

 pare a female Pasandava-specimen of Mat. picta with a fe- 

 male Amboina-specimen of Mat. banksii , I find the hands 

 wholly similar to each other and only the following diffe- 

 rences are to be mentioned: the carapace being somewhat 

 more granulated in the latter species, the antero-lateral 

 tubercles less strongly developed and the lateral spines a 

 little shorter than in Mat. picta , so that the females of 

 both species can be distinguished only by the external 

 appearance and the coloration of the cephalothorax. 



5. Matuta m a c u I a t a Miers. 



Miers, on the Oxystomatous Crustacea, p. 246, pi. XL, 

 fig. 3 and 4. 



Notes I'roni tbe I^oydeu IMus^euui, Vol. III. 



