26 Mr. E. J. Miers on the Squillidae. 



the collection of H.M.S. 'Herald''), and a male and female 

 from Zanzibar [Colonel Play fair). 



Besides the above localities, I may note that it has been 

 recorded by Heller from Ceylon, Madras, Singapore, Java, 

 Auckland, and Tahiti, as 8. nepa, and from Ceylon as 8. 

 oratoria * ; from the island of Banka, by Giebel, as 8. 

 Edwardsii ; from Sydney, by Hess, as 8. Icevis ; and by Milne- 

 Edwards and Gay from Chili. 



The series before me shows that this species varies con- 

 siderably in the form of the rostrum (which is sometimes more 

 elongated and narrowed distally), of the lateral processes of the 

 thoracic segments (which, however, are always bilobate), in 

 the greater or less rugosity of the postabdominal segments, &c. 



It would appear that the specimens referred to by Say and 

 Gibbes as S. mantis, in their descriptions of 8. empusa, belong 

 to 8. nepa. 



In a young female from the Philippine Islands, which I at 

 first separated as a distinct species under the name of 8. gracilis, 

 the dactylus of the raptorial limbs is on one side seven- 

 and on the other eight-spined, and the lateral lobes of the 

 bilobate fifth and sixth thoracic segments are rounded. I 

 may observe that the appendages of the thoracic limbs are 

 filiform and elongated, not dilated and ovate as (according to 

 De Haan) they are in the young Lysiosquilla maculata. It 

 is possible that this is after all the type of a distinct species. 



***** Dactyli of the raptorial limbs armed with seven or eight spines. 



Squilla armata. 



? Squilla armata, M.-Edwards, Hist. Nat. Crust, ii. p. 521 (1837) ; Gay, 

 Hist, de Chile, Zool. iii. Crust, p. 223 (1849). 



In the specimens in the Museum collection (which I refer to 

 this species with some hesitation, on account of the brevity 

 of the descriptions) the carapace is narrowed anteriorly, with 

 the cervical suture very faintly defined in its posterior portion, 

 and the lateral longitudinal carina; obliterated, except on the 

 postero-lateral lobes ; the spine at the antero-lateral angles is 

 small but distinct. The rostral plate is somewhat elongated 

 and narrowed distally, with a very slight median elevation. 

 The lateral spines of the antennulary segment are prominent 

 and curved forward ; and in front of these there are two smaller 

 spines on the ocular segment. The lateral processes of the 

 first exposed thoracic segment are narrow, straight, and acute ; 



* I do not know on what grounds Dr. Heller separated S. oratoria 

 from S. nepa. 



