202 A HISTORY OF RECENT CRUSTACEA 
except on the chele, which are mottled with yellow.’ 
Krauss at Natal found Alpheus Edwardsit in monstrous 
numbers in the mud of the bay, in which, he says, they 
dig deep perpendicular holes. When the tide is out they 
sit at the mouths of their burrows, but at any one’s ap- 
proach, rapidly ensconce themselves, making as they do 
so a snapping noise. How the sound was produced Krauss 
was unable with all his pains to discover. 
- Athdnas, Leach, 1814, differs in several respects from 
the character of the family as given by Spence Bate in his 
report on the Challenger Macrura, since the rostrum is 
well developed instead of being reduced to a minimum, 
the eye-stalks are only partially instead of entirely covered 
by the carapace, and the first pair of trunk-legs, though 
unequal in size, are not unsymmetrical in shape. The 
first antenne have three flagella, the second a long ovate 
scale with distal tooth. 
Athanas nitescens, Leach, is British, and is found also 
in the Mediterranean. Spence Bate describes a new species 
Athanas veloculus, from the Cape Verde Islands. 
Parathanas, Spence Bate, 1888, is said to be closely 
allied to Athanas, but to have on the first antenne only 
two flagella, one of which is very short. The type species is 
Parathanas decorticus, but to this is added Parathanas im- 
maturus n. sp., founded on a specimen scarcely a fifth of 
an inch in length, from which ‘ unfortunately all the pereio- 
poda are broken off short.’ It is spoken of as ‘a damaged 
specimen of what appears to be another species,’ and the 
admissions are made that ‘ there is little to determine the 
true character of the specimen,’ and that ‘the only dis- 
tinguishable difference is that the rostrum is longer in 
proportion to the animal.’ Since comparative measure- 
ments in immature animals have no specific value, one is 
tempted to transfer the ungallant observation about ‘ most 
women’ to Purathanas immaturus, and say that ‘ some 
species have no character at all.’ 
Betwus, Dana, 1852, has no rostrum, and the ‘ hands ’ 
of the first legs more or less inverted, so that the finger or 
seventh joint is on the outer instead of the inner side. In 
