I9I4'] S- Kemp: Notes on Crustacea Decapoda. 89 



Spirontocaris kauaiensis possesses arthrobranchs at the base 

 of the peraeopods and a three-segmented mandibular palp, while 

 there are 13 or 14 segments in the carpus of the second peraeo- 

 pods. The species must, in consequence, be transferred to the 

 genus Merhippolyte and is a very close ally of M. calmani. 



The two forms are, I believe, specifically distinct. M. calmani 

 seems, on the whole, a slightly more slender form than M. 

 kauaiensis with legs proportionatel}^ a trifle shorter. The branchio- 

 stegal angle of the carapace is more abruptly rectangular and 

 the eyes decidedly larger than in the specimen from the Hawaiian 

 Is. ; the breadth of the cornea is about one-quarter the median 

 length of the carapace in the former, whereas in the latter it is 

 about one-fifth. In the eye of M . kauaiensis , moreover, there is 

 a small ocellus, touching the cornea but quite distinct from it, and 

 of this in the Indian species there is no trace. 



In M. kauaiensis the second peraeopods fail to reach the apex 

 of the antennal scale by the whole length of the chela, whereas 

 in M. calmani they extend by almost the same amount beyond 

 the apex. The exopod on the third maxillipede is rather shorter 

 in M. kauaiensis than in its ally and there are no epipods on the 

 last three pairs of legs; in M. calmani only the epipod of the 

 fifth leg is absent. 



Genus Alope, White. 



The generally accepted definition of this genus must be modi- 

 fied in one important respect in order to include Alope ansiyalis. 

 Baker, a species in which the incisor-process of the mandible 

 is obsolete. In A. palpalis, White, the type and only other known 

 representative of the genus, this process is considerably reduced, 

 so that it is not altogether surprising to find that it is absent in 

 the allied species. 



Alope still remains well defined, for among the Hippolytidae 

 only two other genera, NatUicaris, Bate, and Ligur, »Sarato 

 {= Pay hip poly tc, Borradaile) possess a mandible which is devoid 

 of an incisor-process and at the same time furnished with a three- 

 segmented palp and from both of these it is at once distinguished 

 by the absence of arthrobranchs at the base of the peraeopods. 



Alope palpalis. White. 

 (Plate I, figs. T, 2.) 



'.' i,S37. HippoJvtc spinifrons. H. Milne- Kdwards, Hist. nat. Crust., 



11, p. 377. 

 1847. Alope palpalis, While, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (21, I, p. 22b. 

 1S74. Alope palpalis, Miers, Zool. Voy. ' Krebus ' and ' Terror,' Crust., 



p. 4, pi. iv, fig. I. 

 i87(). Alope palpalis, Miers., Cat. Crust. N. Zealand, p. 80, 

 V 1876. liippolvte spiuifvotis, Miers., ibid., p. 80. 

 1886. Hippoiyte spiiiifroiis, Filhol, Mission de lile Campbell, HI, 



p. 431, pi, liii, fig. 13. 

 1886. Alope palpalis, Filhol, ibid., p. 433. 

 1899. Alope palpalis, Coutiere, Ann. Sci. nat. Zool. 181. I.\, p. 79, 



text-fig. p. 36. 



