DROMILITES. 31 



Dromilites Bdcklandi, Edwards. Plate VI, figs. 1 — 11, 



Testa suborbiculata, antice glabra, seque longa ac lata ; regione cardiaca convexa, non 

 tuberculata. 



Dromia BncKLANDi, Edwards. Hist. nat. des Crust., t. ii, p. 178. 



JDescr. Adult. Carapace suborbicular, as long as it is broad, considerably convex, 

 minutely punctated, the front very much inflated, triangular, pointed, with two small 

 projecting teeth above, and a sulcus between them ; orbits directed obhquely backwards 

 and outwards, the margin shghtly raised; latero-anterior margin with two flattened, 

 bidentate projections, one on the hepatic I'egion, the other on the mesobranchial lobe, and 

 a strong tooth with a smaller one behind it on tiie metabranchial, the whole constituting 

 the normal number (five) of lateral teeth; gastric region very large, with two sUght 

 elevations on the protogastric lobes, one on each side the median hne, and two larger 

 rounded tubercles on the mesogastric, these four constituting the remaining elevations 

 of the eight, which are found on this region in the young animal. Urogastric lobe 

 very short, forming an almost linear, transverse piece, wdth shght indications of the 

 small tubercles which occupy this part in the young state ; cardiac region uTegularly 

 pentagonal, evenly raised towards the centre, sometimes with a slight depression on the 

 raised portion ; the posterior lobe veiy small, scarcely distinguishable from the meta- 

 branchial ; hepatic region small, smooth, continuous with the gastric, without any line 

 of demarcation ; branchial region very large ; the metabranchial distinctly separated from 

 the anterior portion by a groove, which extends in a curve backwards betw^een it and the 

 cardiac region ; the epibranchial lobe has two tubercles, and the mesobranchial is shghtly 

 raised ; the metabrauchial rugose, veiy broad, extending on each side towards the mesial 

 line, where the two approximate so much as scarcely to be distinguishable one from the 

 other, or fi'om the small posterior cardiac lobe, which becomes, as it were, amalgamated 

 with them. I have seen this remarkable approximation of the posterior portion of the two 

 branchial regions carried in D. LamarcJcii to a still greater extent ; as, in that species, 

 they imite intimately for their whole length, so as to form a continuous area, occupying 

 nearly half of the whole carapace. 



The whole of the specimens which have come under my observation have been 

 mutilated, so that I have not had an opportunity of ascertaining the. form of the under 

 mai'gin of the orbits, of the eyes, or of any portion of the antennary region ; the external 

 pedipalps, judging from a specimen in which this organ is tolerably perfect, has almost 

 exactly the same form as in Dromia. The basal joint is narrow, of an in-egular form, 

 wider at the inner extremity; the outer stalk flattened, awl-shaped, and as long as 

 the inner ; the first joint of the inner stalk quadi-ate, rather longer than broad, the second 

 quadi-ate ; all quite smooth and polished. The anterior pair of legs equal, very smooth 



