CRUSTACEA NORTH PACIFIC EXPLORING EXPEDITION 171 



276. DROMIDIA SPONGIOSA Stimpson 

 Plate XX, Fig. i 



Dromidia spongiosa Stimpson, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., x, p. 238 

 [76], 1858. 



The only specimen obtained of this small species is a female. 

 With the exception of the fingers of the chelipeds, the entire surface 

 is covered with a dense and firm envelope of pubescence, sponge-like 

 in appearance. On the carapax this covering is distinctly marked 

 with shallow pits or depressions corresponding with those of the 

 surface beneath, which is glabrous, and minutely punctate. The 

 front is triangular, pointed, and very much deflexed, much project- 

 ing downward, and deeply channeled longitudinally, so that it pre- 

 sents a bicuspid appearance from above. Its margins are smooth^ 

 though flexuose, arching over the antennae, and presenting a slight 

 tooth at the inner angle of the orbit. There is no tooth on the 

 superior margin of the orbit, and none at its external angle, although 

 at this latter point there is a fissure. The antero-lateral margin is 

 entire, strongly convex, and bears a small tooth at the lateral emar- 

 gination. The meros-joint of the external maxillipeds is oblique at 

 the anterior margin, though less so than in D. hirsntissima. Cheli- 

 peds of moderate size, with a smooth surface ; hand rather short ; 

 fingers not defiexed, and bare of pubescence except at their bases; 

 both fingers toothed within. Feet of the fourth pair very short, 

 compressed, and truncate at the tip; fifth pair more slender and 

 longer. Abdomen (of the female) long, with a narrow, obtuse 

 median carina separating two longitudinal smooth channels ; appen- 

 dages of the penult joint concealed; terminal joint large, one-half 

 longer than the penult. Color in life reddish. Length of the cara- 

 pax in our specimen, 0.42 ; breadth, 0.52 inch. 



This species resembles somewhat D. iinidcntata Riippell and D. 

 rotunda MacLeay, from w^hich it differs (judging from published 

 accounts) in the want of tubercles at the angles of the orbits, in the 

 toothed dactylus of the chelipeds, and in the shape of the meros-joint 

 of the outer maxillipeds. D. unidentata is represented in Riippell's 

 figure as having two or three spiniform processes beside the dac- 

 tylus, at the extremity of the penult joint, in the fourth and fifth 

 pairs of feet, which is not the case in our species, nor in any other 

 Dromia which we have seen. 



Our species was dredged from a rocky bottom in twenty fathoms, 

 in False Bay. Cape of Good Hope. 



