Supeifamlly STYLODACTVLOIDA. 



Family Stylodactvi.iiiak. 

 Stylodactylus A. M.-Edw. 



The family Stylodactylidae, characterized by the second maxillipeds, of which the ischium 

 and the merus seem to be coalesced to one joint, while the propodus seems to carry, according 

 to a suggestion of Dr. Calman, a process that has become movable, so that in these maxillipeds 

 two joints look as if articulating with the preceding one, and furthermore by the two first pairs 

 of legs, in which, according to the Rev. Stebbing (South African Crustacea, Part VII, 1914, 

 p. 50), "the palm has dwindled to the shortest span, and the long slender setose fingers lie so 

 closely one upon the other that the ordinary function of chelae as grasping organs seems almost 

 out of the question" — this family now contains at present six or seven species. The West 

 Indies are inhabited by two, viz. Stylod. serrahis A. M.-Edw. 1881, the first described of the 

 family, and Stxlod. rcctii-ostris A. M.-Edw. 1883. Stylod. ser7'at!is was discovered by A. Agassiz 

 off the island of -St. Domingo at a depth of 524 fathoms and was afterwards taken by the 

 U. S. Coast Survey Steamer "Blake" off the islands of Martinique and Nevis in 334 and 356 

 fathoms; according to the Rev. Stebbing this species should also occur off East London, Cape 

 Colony, at a depth of 300 fathoms. The other, Stylod. rectirostris^ was obtained, also by the 

 expedition of the "Blake", off St. Lucia at 116 fathoms: this form was figured by A. Milne- 

 Edwards in the "Recueil de Figures de Crustaces nouveaux ou peu connus" of April 1883, 

 but has never been described. 



Stylod. discissipes Bate 1888, with which Stylod. orientalis Bate 1888 is probably 

 identical, occurs in the Pacific and was taken north of the Kermadec Islands at a depth of 

 600 fathoms and off the Hawaiian Islands in 230 to 53 fathoms. Another indopacific form is 

 Stylod. biinaxillaris Bate 1888, taken by the "Challenger" off the Admiralty Islands at a 

 depth of 1 50 fathoms, but also recorded from the Sagami Bay, Japan, where a female was 

 obtained in 82 fathoms. The third indopacific species is Stylod. Amarynthis de Man, which is, 

 at present known from four difterent localities of the Indian Archipelago, the fourth and last, 

 finallv, the new Stxlod. Sibomc de Man from the Sulu .Sea taken at a depth of 285 fathoms. 



