2 Mr. E. J. Miers on the 



When Dr. Leach, in 1817, described the genus Micippa* 

 he took as the type the Micippa cristata {Cancer crhtatus, 

 Linnseus), which had been long previously described and 

 figured by Rumphius as Cancer spinosus. 



Milne-Edwards in 1834 f referred a second species, desig- 

 nated by him Micippa philyr a ( Herbs t) , to this genus, and esta- 

 blished (p. 332) the genus Paramicippa to include the Micippa 

 platipes of Ruppell, from the Red Sea, and a new species, 

 P. tuberculosa, of uncertain habitat, characterizing the latter 

 genus principally by the non-retractile eyes, the incomplete 

 orbits, whose postforaminal portion was not developed, and 

 the flattened and dilated second joints of the exterior antennas. 

 The first two of these characters, however, fail in Para- 

 micippa platipes (Ruppell), which at that time was apparently 

 known to Milne-Edwards only from Dr. Riippell's description 

 and figure. 



In 1856 Dr. A. Gerstacker % published some observations 

 on the typical specimens of Micippa philyra (Herbst) and 

 M. thalia (Herbst) ; he redescribed the latter species, and also 

 described as new a species, M. miliaris, from the Red Sea, 

 which is regarded by Dr. Kossmann as a variety of Micippa 

 thalia (Herbst). 



In 1877 Dr. Kossmann (I. c. p. 4) admitted the following 

 species as well established: — 1. M. cristata (Linn.); 2. M. 

 philyra (Herbst), with the varieties mascarenica, Kossm., and 

 platipes, Riipp. ; 3. M. thalia, Herbst, with the varieties 

 caledonica, Kossm., miliaris, Gerstacker, indica, Kossm., and 

 aculeata, Bianconi. He also sustained the genus Parami- 

 cippa, taking as the type P. tuberculosa, M.-E. He erro- 

 neously regarded the Micippa sp>inosa of Dr. Stimpson as 

 synonymous with M. cristata, this species being in fact one of 

 the best characterized of the genus. 



In 1879, in my synopsis of the families and genera of the 

 Oxyrhyncha, not having then seen Dr. Kossmann's work, I 

 followed some previous authors in taking Riippell's species 

 (M. platipes) as the type of the genus Paramicippa, and di- 

 stinguished the latter genus by the less vertically deflexed 

 rostrum and the dilated palms of the cheli pedes in the male, 

 whose fingers, when closed, meet only at the tips — characters 

 which, perhaps, obtain only in Riippell's species (not in P. 

 tuberculosa) , and, moreover, cannot be regarded as of generic 

 importance §. 



* Zoological Miscellany, iii. p. 15(1817). 



t Hist. Nat. Crust, i. p. 329. 



\ Archiv f. Naturgeschichte, xxii. p. 106. 



§ Journ. Linn. Soc, Zool. xiv. p. 662 (1870). I am unaware of the 



