﻿Soutli African Cnistacca. 



Gen. POMATOCHELES, Miers. 



1879. Pomatocheles, Miers, Pr. Zool. Soc. London, p. 49. 



1880. Mixtopagurus, A. Milne-Edwards, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool, 



vol. 8, pt. 8, p. 39. 

 1893. ,, A. M.-Edwards and Bouvier, Mem. Mus. Comp. 



Zool., vol. 14, No. 3, p. 23. 

 1905. Pomatocheles and Mixtopagurus, Alcock, Catal. Indian Deep- 

 sea Anomura, fasc. 1, p. 14. 

 1913. Mixtopagurus, Balss, Abhandl. K. Bayer. Ak. Wiss., Suppl. 

 vol. 2, pt. 9, p. 34. 

 In his synopsis of the genera, Alcock distinguishes Poma- 

 tocheles as having " hands of chelipeds forming an operculum " 

 from Mixtopagurus with " chelipeds not operculiform." Both 

 are distinguished from Pylocheles and Cheiroplatea by having 

 the third maxillipeds normal instead of cheliform. The new 

 species here described is distinguished from P. gilli by its 

 symmetrical telson, from P. p)aradoxus by having the palp 

 of the first maxillae simple instead of two-jointed, from 

 P. spinosus by its unequal chelipeds, and from P. Jeffrey sii 

 by longer eyestalks, the rostrum acute instead of rounded, 

 unequal and strongly tuberculose chelipeds, and the much 

 more sharply separated lobes of the telson. 



Pomatocheles balssi, n. sp. 

 Plate LXV. 

 The anterior half of the carapace is calcified, the rest more or less 

 membranaceous, as is the case with the pleon except in the short first 

 segment and the sixth, the latter appearing to be immovably bent, 

 as though the telson and uropods were permanently folded forwards 

 and underneath. It is rather remarkable that this symmetrical 

 hermit should have been found occupying a simple cylindrical coral 

 which is itself curved and tapers to a narrow completely closed foot. 

 But similarly P. jeffreysii occupied the curved shell of a Dentalium. 

 The general surface is pilose, the rostral point acute, a smaller acute 

 point being formed by the front margin outside each ocular peduncle. 

 These peduncles are long, a little dilated for the small dark cornea ; 

 the small scales at the base are not contiguous and are produced on 

 the inner side into a single acute point. The telson is much longer 

 than broad, bilobed with a deep apical incision, the sides of which, 

 like the free border all round, are fringed with plumose setae; the 



