90 Records of the Indian Museum. [Vol. X, 



190,^. Alope palpalis, Thomson, Trans. Linn. Soc, Zool. 121, VTII, 



p. 440, pi. xxviii, figs. 3-12. 

 1903. Mei'liippolyfe spinifrons, Thomson, ibid., p. 444. 

 1909. Alope palpalis, McCulloch, Rcc. Australian Mus., \ II, p. 313, 



text-figs. 2, 3. 

 1906. Mei'liippolyfe spiiiifroiis = :' Alope polpnlis, Caiman, Ann. Mag. 



Nat. Hist. ( 7 I, X\T1, p. 32. 



Dr. Caiman has suggested that Hippolyte- spinifrons, Milne- 

 Edwards, is probably a species of Alope and with this view I am 

 in entire agreement. It seems likely that the phrase '' les epines 

 suborbitaires " in Milne-Edwards' description is a clerical error 

 for 'Mes epines supra- orb itaires " ; this hypothesis explains the 

 italicization of the whole passage and appears to me more pro- 

 bable than the view advanced by Bate ' that the words refer to 

 the lateral process of the antennular peduncle. In other respects 

 the description agrees well enough with Alope palpalis; but until 

 the matter has been placed beyond all doubt it is, in my opinion, 

 not advisable to change the name of this well-known form. 



Several subsequent authors have recorded both Alope palpalis 

 and Hippolyte spinifrons from the New Zealand coast ; but it does 

 not appear that any of them, with the possible exception of 

 Filhol, examined both forms. Filhol's Hippolyte spinifrons, as is 

 shown by the figure, is undoubtedly synonymous with White's 

 Alope palpalis \ he refers to the supra-orbital spines as "epines 

 sus-orbitaires ' ' following Milne-Edwards' mistake in terminology. 

 He gives no description of \i\'& Alope palpalis and it is possible that 

 he has supplied records of its occurrence without examining speci- 

 mens ; his work, as a whole, is not such a? to inspire confidence. 



Thomson, under the name Merhippolyte spinifrons, merely 

 quotes Filhol's account, and the examples subsequently recorded 

 by Chilton * under this name from the Kermadec Is. are, as I 

 have been able to determine by examination of specimens kindly 

 sent me by the author, to be referred to the genus Lysmata (see 

 p. no). It is, I believe, most improbable that Milne-Edwards' 

 description was based on this species. 



Alope palpalis is represented in the Indian Museum by a 

 single ovigerous female which differs rather markedly from 

 Thomson's description and figures (/or. cit.). In the second pair 

 of peraeopods the ischium and merus on the right side are 

 composed of two segments and the carpus of seven (fig. 2). On 

 the left side the ischium is two-, the merus three- and the 

 carpus eight-segmented (fig. i). The processes on the thoracic 

 sternum bear little resemblance to Thomson's figure and are 

 closely similar in form to those of the allied species, A. australis 

 (see pi. I, fig. 5). 



Thomson does not refer in any definite way to the great 

 development of the third maxillipedes and first peraeopods in 



1 Bate, Rep. 'Challenger' Macrura, pp. 621, 622 (1888). 

 ■^ (hillon. Trans. N. /.c.il.-ind Insl., Xi.lii, p. 547 (i()ii). 



