149 



Eyes well pigmented ; a few tiny spinules fringe the corneal margin dorsally. 



Antennal scale broadly falcate, with the outer edge serrated. 



External maxillipeds stoutish, setose. 



1st pair of thoracic legs not longer or stouter than the 4th pair, not setose. 



2nd pair, equal in the female, not setose, not half as long again as the 1st 

 pair, fairly slender up to the hand, which is compressed, moderately enlarged, and 

 has the upper border cristiform. 



3rd pair hardly setose, unequal (in the female), much longer and stouter than 

 the 2nd pair, especially as regards the hand, which is compressed and of great 

 breadth, has the fingers about half as long as the palm, and in the larger one 

 forms half the total length of the leg. There is a spine near the far end of the 

 upper border of the ischium, and two spines on the lower border of the merus : 

 both the distal angles of the triangular carpus are sharply pronounced, and both 

 borders of the palm are serrated, the upper the more strongly : the fingers are 

 falcate, with a few large interlocking teeth. 



The 4th and 5th pairs of legs end each in a very short bifid dactylus and 

 have the posterior border of the propodite finely serrated: the 5th pair is a good 

 deal longer than the 4th. 



The total length of an egg-laden female is 12 millim. 



Andaman Sea, 170 and 238 to 290 fathoms. These were dredged in the 

 earlier days of the Survey and I can find no record of the circumstances in 

 which they were taken. The other two species of Spongicola, namely, S. 

 venusta and S. Koehleri are commensals of Hexactinellid Sponges. 



Regd. Xos. 'f (Types of the species): ^. 



MACRURA ASTACIDES. 



Decapodes Haaoures (exc. SaKcojues at Galatheides) Milne Edwards, Hist. Xat. Crust, II. 265 



Uacrura Astacina (exc. Majalopidea) De 11 nan, Faun. Japon., Crust., p. 142. 



Thalassinidea et Astacidea, Dana, U. S. Expl. Exp. pt. 1 Crust., pp. 500 501 



Reptantia (exc Auomala et Brachyura) Boas, Vid. Selsk. Skr., 6 Rae'kke, naturvid. o. mathemat. Afd 1 2 

 p. 156 : Ortmann, in Bronn's Thier Reich (Malacostiaca), pp , 1116 et seq, 



Trichobranchiata Normalia (exc. Stenopidea) et Aberrant™ (exc. Galatheidve et rylochelidx), Spence Bate 

 Challenger Macrura, pp. 7, 199. 



Tlialassinidea, Scyllaridea et Astacidea, Stebbing, Hist. Crust., pp. 180 191, J99 



Body not compressed, sometimes depressed ; rostrum, when present, not 

 compressed, usually depressed : integument usually strongly calcified. Abdomen 

 long, not flexed or humped, symmetrical : the pleura of the 1st abdominal somite 

 much reduced. Telson generally quadrangular, occasionally acute. 



The basal joint of the antennular peduncle has no " scale " on its outer 

 margin : the olfactory seta? are in the distal part of the outer antennular 

 flagellum. 



