30 FOSSIL MALACOSTRACOUS CRUSTACEA. 



very obvious in the position of the eyes, in which it differs from the other two recent 

 genera of the family. 



The literary history, if it may be so termed, of this species, is somewhat cm-ious. A 

 single specimen only was known to be in existence, until those above referred to were found 

 to be contained in the rich collections of Mr. Bowerbank and Mr. "Wethcrell. That spe- 

 cimen is now, and has been for very many years, in the British ^luscuin. It formed 

 the subject of a description with a figure by the late M. Konig in his ' leoncs Fossilium 

 Sectiles,' under the name of Sci/llarus (?) tuberculafus. This proves, on examination, 

 as was first pointed out to me by !Mr. Woodward, to be artificially made up ; the whole 

 surface of the carapace is fictitious, and the very tubercles* on which the name was founded 

 exist only in obedience to the skill and trickery of the artist. All the distinctive characters, 

 even of the family to which it belongs, are thus lost, but Mr. Konig with great acumen 

 recognised its affinities fi-om its general form, and named it as above. In Professor Morris's 

 most useful and elaborate ' Catalogue' it is mistakenly referred to the Brachyurous genus 

 Xantliojjsis, as a synonjon of Z. nodosus, of M'Coy, simply, as I presume, from its specific 

 name tuhcrcidaUis ; and this oversight probably arose from the specimen not having 

 been seen, and the figure itself having been forgotten by the learned author. 



Tlie specific name, having been founded on an error, must be changed ; and I have 

 great pleasure in the opportunity afforded me of naming it after my old friend Mr. Konig, 

 who first distinguished it, and appreciated its relations. 



Family— hSlk^W^M. 



Genus — IIoplopakia, M'Coy. 



Char. Gen. Testa subcomprcssa, lateribus latis; sulco ccrvicali profundo, latera 

 versus abbreviato ; sulco hepatico bifm-cato, X-formi ; rostro subulato ; processu supra- 

 antcnnali semicylindraceo, basin squama; antenna) externae tegcnte. Pedes anlici 

 inajquales ; 7ncijor robustus, digitis fortiter tuberculatis ; alter gracilis, digitis dcnticidis 

 numerosis, subajqualibus, armatis : pedes reliqui gracillimi. Abdomen subcyhndraccum, 

 epimeris falcatis, acuminatis. 



The very close affmity of this genus to Ilomartis, as exemplified in the common lobster, 

 H. vulgaris, might lead the naturalist at first sight to consider the fossil species as scarcely 

 generically distinct from the recent one ; and the late Mr. George Sowerby has accordingly 

 named and described one from the Greensand of Lyme Regis, as a true Astacus, from 



* Mr. Konig's words are, "tubercula in utroque thoracis latere, duo." 



