lOI 



to the length of the gastric region than in Xcphr. Sibogae. In three of the four species the 

 cardiac region is traversed in the middle by a denticulated ridge, hut in Xeplir. Challengcri 

 this riilge is wanting comjjletcly, the cardiac region being here smooth and unarmed. 



Ncphr. japo)iicus Taj)!). Can. is also a different species, which has pretty well been 

 figured in: Memorie della R. Accadcmia d. Scienze di Torino, .Scr. II, T. XX\'III, 1873, but 

 the sculjjture of the abdominal terga apjjears on that plate, at least in my copy of this paper, 

 rather indistinct. Prof. DotJKRt.KiN of Strasburg has been so kind to send me for examination 

 2 of the 9 specimens of Xcphr. japoiiicus from the Bay of Tokyo, mentioned b\' Dr. Okt.manx in : 

 Zool. Jahrb. Abt. f. Syst. T. VI, icScji, p. 6. These specimens are an adult male long 212 mm. 

 and a somewhat younger female long 185 mm. Their examination proved in the first jilace 

 that the sculjjture of the abdomen is exactly the s a m e in the male a n tl i n 

 the female, so that the dinior[)hism, which was supposed by Oktmaxx (I.e. 1897) to occur 

 in this species, does in fact not exist. Dr. H. Balss, by whom several adult male and female 

 specimens of Xcphr. japoiiiciix were e.xamined (1. c. p. 84), was also unable to find a dimorphism 

 with regard to the sculptiu'e of the al)d(jmen. As was already remarked above, the sculpture 

 of the abdomen has not been clearly figured on Tapparone Cankfui's plate, but in Ort.mann's 

 paper of 1897 (PI. 17, fig. i) a lateral view of the abdomen of a female was published, with 

 which the two cot\pes of Xcphr. /apo>iiciis, that are King before me, fully agree. \\ hen this 

 figure is now compared with the quoted figures of Xcphr. andauianicus and with our male 

 from the Bali Sea, the scul])ture oi Xcphr. japonictis appears more complicate: the rai.sed band 

 along the posterior margin and the raised stibmedian jjarts of the upi)er surface of the terga 

 are in Xcphr. japoiiiciis grooved and stibdividcLl, in Xcphr. andainaniciis not. 



In his quoted work of 1 (j 1 4 Balss has figured on Plate I, tig. 2 an atlult male of 

 Xephr. japonicus from Japan. Now I must call attention to the remarkable fact 

 that this figure c 1 o s c 1 \- r e s c ni b 1 e s Xcphr. atidainanictis., except t) n 1 \- as regards 

 the large spines at the base of the rostrum. In this figure indeed the abdominal 

 terga do not show the subdivision of tlie posterior and submcdian raised parts of the upper 

 surface, described above: the sculpture therefore fully agrees with that of our male from 

 the Bali Sea, referred to Xcphr. aiic/aiiianiciis and with the figures of this species in the 

 "Illustrat. Zool. Investigator". 



In XcpJir. japonicus the 6''' somite of the abdomen carries in the middle line two 

 pairs of acute spines, ])laced behind one another; these s])ines are clearly visible in 

 Taim'aroxk CaxeI'Ri's figure, like also in a lateral view in ORT.NtAXx's figure of 1897, antl they 

 are also distinctly develojjed in the two cotypes from .Strasburg. In the figure of Balss, 

 however, these sijines sccni to be wanting also! These two difterences from the \.s^\z2\ japonicus^ 

 shown by this figure, are for the present for me inexplicable. The rostrum indeed looks like 

 that of the tyiiiral japonicus, the large si)ines at the base reach the anterior margin of the 

 eyes and are clearl\- curved inward and downward like in japonicus, while in the male ot 

 Ncphr. andamanicus from the P)ali ■ Sea they extend only to the midtlle of the eyes and are 

 straight and turned outward; the lateral ridges, jjosterior to the rostrum, seem to carry, however, 

 in the figure of Balss, only 3 spines, not 5 or 6 as in japonicus. The anterior [jair of legs also 



