352 CRAYFISHES. 



I doul)t if this is the specimen figured l^y Alihie Edwards: he gives as the 

 length of the body, two inches; the figure, which is said to be fife size, is 56 mm. 

 long. 



Dr. Giuseppe Nobili ' also has examined the same cotype belonging to the 

 Paris Museum and is convinced that it belongs to the same species as a male 

 specimen, 66 mm. long, in the Museum of Natural History of Genoa, said to 

 have been collected by DMlbertis in 1872 on the little island of Sorong in the 

 Strait of Galevo, northwestern coast of New Guinea. Perhaps a misplacement of 

 labels has occm'red in this case; the extraordinary chstribution of this species 

 imphed by the nominal locality label accompanying the Genoa specimen, as well 

 as the nature of the islet of Sorong, make it probable that the specimen was in 

 reality secured at Sydney, Australia, where D'Albertis collected in 1873. 



Astacopsis australasiensis may tui'n out to be nothing but an inmiature 

 stage of A. spinifera. 



ASTACONEPHROPS ALBERTISII NobiU. 



Astaconephrops alberlisii Nobili, Annali Mus. Civ. Storia Nat. Geneva, 1S99, 40, p. 244; Bolletino dei 

 Musei di Zoologia ed Anatomia Comparata di Torino, June 9, 1903, 18, p. 1. 



The genus Astaconephrops, with its one species albertisii, based on a single 

 female specimen in the Museum of Genoa which is said to have come from 

 Katau on the southern coast of New Guinea, needs further elucidation. Accord- 

 ing to Nobili the margins of the rostrum (which in a general way resembles the 

 rostrum of Paranephrops) are continued back, in the shape of two keels, over 

 the carapace to the cer\'ical groove; the abdominal segments are produced into 

 points laterally; the inner branch of the last pair of abdominal appendages is 

 furnished with a rib or keel on the dorsal face, terminating in a spine near the 

 centre of the branch; the chelae are long and slender and on account of the 

 elevation of the middle of the two faces appear subprismatical ; the carpus is 

 cyhndrical, or rather depressed, and armed on the inner side with a sharp spine 

 concealed in a large tuft of hairs; the inner margin of the palm is furnished with 

 minute teeth, all the rest of the palm being smooth; the fingers are unarmed, 

 but provided with hairs along their cutting edges. 



From the description of this animal given by NobiU one would infer a com- 

 bination of the characters of Nephrops, Paranephrops and Cheraps. The 



' Contribuzioni alia Conoscenza della Fauna Carcinologica della Papuasia, delle Molluche e dell' 

 Australia. Annali del Mus. Civ. Storia Nat. Genova, 1899, 40, p. 246. 



