82 



It is interesting to notice that this species is quite like any other Pinnoteres 

 and has apparently undergone no further modification to fit it for deep-sea life, 



Mr. E. A. Smith, who has kindly named the host species for me, -writes that 



" it is exceedingly close to the Norwegian Lima excavata lAma goliath 



from Japan is another near relation. It is questionable whether they do not all 

 belong to one widely distributed form." 



Mr. Smith, to whose voluntary kindness we are indebted for numerous in- 

 teresting reports — published in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History for 

 1894 and succeeding years — on the Investigator Deep-sea Mollusca, has already 

 remarked the " close similarity " of certain of them " to species which occur in 

 the North Atlantic ." 



Since the foregoing was sent to press I have received a copy of Miss 

 M. J. Rathbun's Brachjura of the Florida Keys (Bull. Lab. Nat. Hist. Iowa, June, 

 1898, pp. 250-294, pi. i-ix), in which are to be found some remarkable corrobora- 

 tions of the views expressed in the Introduction to this Report as to the Atlantic 

 affinities of the fauna of the moderate depths of Indian Seas. 



For instance, Thyrolambrus nstroides Rathbun (1894), dredged by the 

 " Albatross " off Havana in 67 and 189 fathoms, is believed by Miss Rathbun, who 

 has had the figure published in the " Investigator " Illustrations to guide her, 

 to be identical with Parthenope (Parthenomerus) efflorescens Alcock (1895), 

 dredged by the " Investigator " in the Andaman Sea at 36 fathoms. Miss 

 Rathbun also records the species from Mauritius. 



Again, PilumnoiJlax americana Rathbun (June 1898) dredged off the coast 

 of Florida in 70-110, 116, and about 200 fathoms, is identical with the Pilum- 

 noplax Sinclairi here described (p. 74), from 430 fathoms off the Travancore 

 coast. 



Further, Chasmocarcimis Rathbun, from off Trinidad, 31-34 fathoms and 

 off the Bahamas in 97 fathoms, seems to differ but slightly from the Camatopsis 

 of page 75 of this Report. 



Also, after this paper was sent to press I discovered a new species of Mursia 



(M. aspera) that had been stowed away by some well-meaning attendant. The 



I discovery was made just in time to enable me to insert the description of the 



/ species in its proper place but not soon enough to allow for the correction 



/ of the table of the percentage composition of the Indian Brachyurous fauna 



on p. 3. 



