372 Records of the Indian Museum. [Vor oeir 
Pontophilus hendersoni, Kemp. 
1915. Pontophilus hendersont, Kemp, Mem. Ind, Mus., V, p. 261, pl.-xiii, 
fig. 8. 
The characters given in the key on pp. 356 and 357 will suffice 
to distinguish this species from all other Indian representatives of 
the genus. 
"P. hendersoni is very closely allied to P. megalochetr (Stebbing)', 
obtained at depths of 25 and 37 fathoms on the coast of S. Africa. 
The African form agrees in nearly all respects with that from the 
Indian coast; in particular, there is (as shown in Stebbing’s figures) 
an almost complete identity of form in the structure of the subchela, 
the ‘thumb’ being composed of two closely juxtaposed spines in- 
stead of the single one found in all other species of the genus. 
There are, however, certain discrepancies between Stebbing’s 
account and my own, which, if substantiated, are sufficient to 
justify the separation of the two forms. The apex of the lamella 
of the antennal scale is, for instance, much more acute in P. megalo- 
cheiy than in P. hendersoni, extending much further beyond the 
apex of the spine that terminates the outer margin (cf. Stebbing’s 
pl. Ixxix, fig. a7. and my text-fig. 25a). Stebbing also has made 
no mention of the small tubercle found in P. hendersoni on the dor- 
sum of the third abdominal somite and the armature of the telson 
is totally different. In P. megalochety the telson is furnished at 
its apex with a long and slender tooth, flanked by a pair of plu- 
mose setae (v. Stebbing, pl. lxxix, fig. T). In P. hendersoni the 
apex consists of a triangular plate with a minute spinule on either 
side and with two pairs of plumose setae arising from beneath it 
(v. Kemp, text-figs. 25 g, 9’). 
Since the original account of P. hendersont was published, 
additional specimens have been taken in the open sea on the Orissa 
Coast, a circumstance which tends to confirm the view that the 
occurrence of the species in the outer channel of the Chilka Lake 
was purely accidental and that it is not normally an inhabitant of 
brackish water. 
2586 Puri, Orissa coast, 4-43 fms. S. Kemp. 3, 6F-9 mm. 
Pontophilus parvirostris, sp nov. 
(Plate viii, fig. 6.) 
The rostrum is extremely small, far less conspicuous than in 
any other species of the genus. It recalls that found in many 
Pagurids and consists merely of a small flat triangular prolonga- 
tion of the median part of the carapace. The apex is acute and 
does not reach further than to one third the length of the eyestalks. 
The antennal spine is sharp and extends far beyond the level 
of the rostral apex ; the branchiostegal spine is long and reaches 


| Philocheras megalocheir, Stebbing, Ann. S. African Mus., XV, p. 71, pl. 
Ixxix (1015). This work was not received in Calcutta in sufficient time to enable 
me to refer to it in my account of the Decapods of the Chilka Lake. 
