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t JJJ^:^ i^ w.--^ [ 325 ] 







X. A Contribution to Indian Carcinology./ Bij J. 11. IIexdersox, 31. B., F.L.S., 

 Fellow of the TJniversity of Ilodras, Professor of Biology in the Iladras Christian 

 College. 



(Plates XXXVI.-XL.) 



Read ICth June, l.«02. 

 IXTRODl'CTIOX. 



1 IIE Decapod and Stomatopod Crustacea referred to in this paper, though furnished 

 by several distinct collections, are all from Indian localities, and it has therefore been 

 found most convenient to incorporate the results of their examination in a single report. 

 A large proportion of the species are contained in two collections, both of considerable 

 size, the first formed by my friend Mr. Edgar Thurston, Superintendent of the Madras 

 Government Museum, chiefly from stations in the Gulf of Manaar, the second by myself", 

 from various localities in the Madras Presidency. Both collections were to some extent 

 examined and the species identified in India, prior to my return to England on leave 

 in 1891, and I fully anticipated that a short period of work at the British Museum 

 would have enabled me to complete the identifications. But the time thus occupied 

 proved much longer than I had calculated, a large portion of it being taken up with 

 the examination of some of the commonest and longest known forms, which are certainly 

 not so well known as they ought to be ; and I may add that my later studies have con- 

 vinced me that the working out of a large collection of shallow-water species cannot be 

 satisfactorily accomplished in India. 



Wiiile engaged in this work, Dr. Giinther and Mr. Pocock, of the British Museum, 

 kindly placed in my hands for examination a series of Indian Crustacea deposited in 

 the National Collection, including a large number of specimens pi-esented by the late 

 Surgeon-General E. Day, C.I.E., and Mr. E. W. Gates, F.Z.S., which have enabled me 

 consi(kn-ably to enlarge the scope of this paper. Dr. Day's collection consists chiefly 

 of the larger and better known Indian marine Decapods, from various localities, as well 

 as a number of land and freshwater Crabs (Telphusidas), and a large series of freshx^iter 

 and marine Prawns, belonging to the genera Palcemon and Bcnceus, which have induced 

 me to revise, to some extent, the characters of the Indian species belonging to the latter 

 genus. Mr. Gates's collection, though not of large extent, includes a number of most 

 interesting forms — principally Macrura — taken by dredging at depths of from tea to twenty 

 fathoms, in the Gulf of Martaban, Burmah ; and, as might be expected, it contains some of 

 the species lately described by Dr. De Man, from the neighbouring Mergui Archipelago. 

 In addition to these I have examined tAVo small collections from Ceylon, the ^lii'st 

 consisting of between fifty and sixty species, which were sent me for identilication 



SECOXD SERIES. — ZOOLOGY, VOL. V. IS 



