loS 



Stat. 262. Dec. iS. 5°53'.S.S., I32°48'.8 E. 560 m. Solid bluish grey mud, upper layer more 

 liquid and brown mud. I male. 



It is a great pity not only that of this interesting new species, discovered amidst the 

 Kei-islands in the Arafura .Sea, but one single specimen has been collected, but especially that 

 even this specimen is in a so much mutilated condition. The posterior half of the abdomen is 

 wanting, the 4 first somites are only jjresent, though partly broken, and the legs of the 1^' pair, 

 like also the antennal flagella, are lost! 



This new species differs, however, at first sight from the other indopacific representatives 

 of this genus by its much more sjjinulose cephalothora.x and by the sculpture of the 

 abdominal terga which agree more with those of the european NcpJir. norivcgic7is than with the 

 three, already mentioned, indopacific .species. In its general appearance the carapace resembles 

 that of Nephr. Sibogae. The slender rostrum has the same form and appears but very little 

 longer; its length, measured to the upper orbital margin of the carapace, amounts to 22^.3 mm., 

 the carapace itself is 34 mm. long; in a male of Ncplir. Sibogae of the same size, in which the 

 carapace is also 34 mm. long, the rostrum has a length of 2 1 '/^ mm. Like in the other indopacific 

 species the rostrum is slightly declivous in its basal halt", while the acuminate distal half is 

 turned upward. The rostrum appears also nearly equally broad in proportion to its length and 

 it carries on either side a sharp tooth which is directed obliquely upward, forward and slightly 

 outward; these spines stand just in front of the eyes, posterior to the middle of the 

 rostrum, so that their distance from the foremost spine of the lateral ridges on the gastric 

 region is distinctly shorter than their distance from the tip of the rostrum; in Nephr. 

 Sibogae, on the contrary, these lateral spines are placed a little farther forward, on the middle 

 of the rostrum. Like in the other species the declivous pro.ximal part is furrowed, tlie upturned 

 part distinctly carinate and the carinate lower edge is armed, just in front of the lateral spines, 

 with an acute spine that reaches as far forward as the antennal peduncle, beyond which the 

 rostrum projects by one-fourth of its length. Like in the other species the lateral margins of 

 the rostrum are continued backwards, nearly as far as the broad and deep cervical groove, 

 as a pair of strong outstanding carinae ; while these carinae run parallel with one another in 

 Nephr. TliODisoiii., Nephr. CJiaUetigeri, Nephr. Sibogae and in Nephr. anda))ianicus, they at 

 first slightly diverge and afterwards d i s t i n c 1 1 )■ converge backward in NepJir. 

 araftirensis, like in Neplir. japonieits. These carinae are each cut into five sharp spines; 

 the foremost is the largest, much larger than the rostral spines, the following decrease regularly 

 in size and length, all are directed obliquely upward and very slightly outward. The 

 spines of the foremost pair e.Ktend almost as far forward as the eye-peduncles and as far as 

 the spinule on the outer angle of the basal joint of the external antennae; their tips are s'Ytinm- 

 distant, those of the 2"^^ pair (y''\^ mm., those of the 3''^ 5^0 mm., those of the 4''^ 4^3 mm., 

 while the apices of the small teeth of the last pair, that stand a little nearer to the midline 

 of the carapace, are only 2 mm. distant. The interspace between the two carinae is, like in 

 other species, ridged in the middle and likewise elevated to a small tubercle which is situated 

 at the level of the limit between the 2"'^ and 3'''* spines. 



The broad and deep cervical groove is comjKiratively as far distant from the posterior 



