On the Australian Maioid Brachyura. 145 



XII. — Notes on the Australian Maioid Brachyura. 

 By William A. Haswell, M.A., B.Sc. Edinb. 



I have been recently engaged in the study of the Brachyura 

 Oxyrhyncha of the Australian coast, and, as a great deal that 

 is new has been met with, and also a good many facts in- 

 teresting from the point of view of geographical distribution, 

 a summary of the results may be of sufficient interest to be 

 given here. 



Taking into account the comparatively unexplored condition 

 of many parts of the coast of Australia (particularly the western 

 and north-western coasts and the south coast of Tasmania), 

 the total number of known species belonging to this group of 

 Brachyura (nearly sixty in all) is unexpectedly large. Aus- 

 tralia, however, cannot, as regards its marine zoology, be 

 regarded as a single region. The affinities borne by the 

 northern coast of the continent to the southern, as regards 

 their prevailing types of marine life, are much less close than 

 those which either of these provinces bears to regions much 

 more remote, or at least separated from it by deep sea. 



Taking those two faunas, the northern and the southern, 

 separately, we find that there is in each a considerable com- 

 mingling of the peculiarities exhibited by various other widely 

 separated zoological provinces. Thus the southern fauna 

 unites to its own peculiar forms some of the characteristics of 

 New Zealand, of Japan, and, indirectly, of Europe ; while the 

 northern is very nearly related to that of the Philippines, 

 Borneo, New Caledonia, and other islands of Melanesia, and, 

 more remotely, to that of the Indian Ocean and Bed Sea. 



It is noteworthy that by far the greater number of the 

 species characteristic of the northern region belong to the 

 families Periceridas and Parthenopidae, while the southern 

 species belong almost exclusively to the Inachidas and Maiidas. 



As regards the species of Inachidas, one of the most striking 

 facts is the occurrence of three species of Stenorhynchus (S. 

 curvirostris, A. Milne-Edwards, S. brevirostris and S. fissi- 

 frons, mihi), a genus of very wide distribution, though till 

 quite recently regarded as peculiar to the northern hemisphere: 

 one of these (S. Jissifrons) occurs also in New Zealand; S. 

 curvirostris has only been found in Bass's Straits ; while the 

 third species (8. brevirostris) ranges from Port Jackson at 

 least as far north as Port Denison. A peculiar form belong- 

 ing to this family is Oonatorhynchus tumidus, mihi, found in 

 Port Jackson. It has the carapace subtriangular, rounded 

 behind, the surface finely granulated, covered with hooked 

 hairs, with a few minute spines on the lateral margins, and 



