302 



Records of the Indian Museum, 



[Vol. XIII, 



the dactylus, the former segment being proportionately shorter in 

 males. Excluding the spines the dactylus is 3*4 or 3*5 times as 

 long as broad in females, rather narrower in males. In females 

 the spines (the terminal one included) are from 9 to 11 in number, 

 very rarely 8; in males they are more numerous, from 13 to 17, 

 rarely 18. In the fifth peraeopods (text-figs. 4g, h) the propodus 

 is from 3'i to 3*7 times the length of the dactylus. The latter 

 segment bears from 46 to 71 spinules, excluding which it is from 

 3*2 to 3'7 times as long as broad. 



In males the propodus of the third and fourth peraeopods is 

 modified much as in P. compressa (text-figs. 45, /). The dactylus 

 is slightly abnormal in form, but is without recurved spines and 

 the propodus does not seem to attain as extreme a development 

 as in large males of P. compressa subsp. improvisa. In very old 

 females additional spinules are sometimes found on the propodi of 



Fig. 4. — Paratya ctimnrostris (Heller). 



a. First peraeopod. e. Third peraeopod of adult male. 



b. Second peraeopod. /. Dactylus further enlarged. 



c. Third peraeopod of old female. g. Fifth peraeopod. 



d. Dactylus further enlarged. /(. Dactylus further enlarged. 



the third and fourth peraeopods (text-fig. 4c), thus resembling 

 adult males. 



The eggs are from 0*40 to o"45 mm. in length and from 0*25 

 to 0'26 mm. in breadth. Large specimens reach a total length of 

 42 mm. 



P. curvirostris is known from both north and south islands of 

 New Zealand and from Upper Assam. It has been recorded by 

 Chilton from the Chatham Is. In the Indian Museum it is repre- 

 sented bj' a number of specimens from the River Avon at Christ- 

 church (Chas. Chilton coll.) and by one from the Shag River (Paris 

 Mus.), both localities being in the southern island. There are 

 also twenty-four specimens from Tezpur, in the Darrang district 

 of Assam, and three from the Manipur Hills, all collected by Col. 

 H. H. Godwin-Austen. 



The views here advanced on the taxonomy of the species of 

 Paratya^ make it more than ever difficult to offer any explanation 

 of the curious distribution of this species ; the new observations 



