139 



its fellow, is about four times as long as the wrist and twice as long as the 

 fingers : its fingers have much the same form as their fellows of the other side, 

 but are slenderer and more nearly equal to one another in length. 



The last 3 pairs are nearly of a length : the 3rd, which are very slightly 

 longer than the 4th and 5th, reach a very little beyond the antennal scale : all 

 end in a very stumpy claw-like dactylus, and all — like the first two pairs of legs 

 — are quite smooth. 



In the largest egg-laden female the length of the rostrum is 6'5 millim., of 

 the carapace 12*5 millim., of the abdomen 30 millim., of the largest cheliped 42 

 millim., but there are two other egg-laden females not half this size. 



Arabian Sea, near the Laccadives and Ceylon 406, 430 and 740 fathoms. 



t, , , T 9221 j 2129-2130 . m c , , • s 4789 



Eegd. Nos. -g- and — — — (lypes of the species) : -j— 

 Family Alplieidce, Spence Bate. 



Spence Bate, Challenger Crust. Macrura, p. 528: Stebbing, Hist. Crust., p. 230 : Ortmann, in Bronn's Their- 

 Beich, Malacostraca, p. 1127 : Coutiere, Ann. Sci. Nat., Zool. (8) IX. 1899. 



Rostrum much reduced, the frontal margin of the carapace on either side 

 of it produced so as to more or less cover the eyes, which have short stalks. 

 Abdomen ending in a broad rounded-off telson. 



Basal joint of the antennular peduncle with a scale on its outer margin. 

 Antennal scale foliaceous. 



Mandibles deeply cleft into incisor and molar processes, and with a short 

 incurved two-jointed palp in the gap between these. 1st pair of maxilla? with 

 coxa and basis well developed, and with an incurved palp. 2nd pair of maxilla? 

 and 1st maxillipeds with coxa small, and basis well developed. All the maxilli- 

 peds with exopodites. Terminal segment of the 2nd maxillipeds as in the 

 Crangonidae. 



1st pair of legs robustly chelate, usually asymmetrical : 2nd pair minutely 

 chelate with multiarticulate carpus. No exopodites to any of the thoracic 

 legs. 



Two species of this family are inhabitants of the depths of the Indian seas. 



Alpheus, Fabr. 



Alpheus, Fabricius, Ent. Syst., Suppl., p. 404: Milne Edwards, Hist. Nat. Crnst. II. 349: Coutiere, Ann. fioi. 

 Nat. Zool., (8) IX. 1899, p. 336. 



Integument smooth. Carapace compressed, ending in a minute or short, 

 compressed, non-serrated rostrum, on either side of which the frontal margin is 

 produced to form a transparent convex roof that completely covers the eyes and 

 the short, little-movable, eyestalks. 



