FROM THE INLAND SEA OF JAPAN. 427 



ALPIIEUS, Fabr. 



Alpheus brevirostris (Olivier). (PI. 33. figs. 51, 52.) 



Palamon brevirostris, Olivier, iu Eacyclop. Method, t. viii. 1789, p. CG-l, pi. .319. fig. 4. 

 Alpheus brtvirostrls, Miliie-Edwai-ds, Hist. Nat. Crust, ii. 1837, p. 350. 

 Alpheus rapax, de Haan, Fauna Japonica, Crust. 1849, p. 177, tab. 45. iig. 2. 

 Alpheus rapax, de Man, in Max Weber's Zool. Ergebnisse, 1892, ii. p. 404. 



Two egg-bearing females from the Inland Sea of Japan, deep water. 

 Before describing these two specimens, I wish to make some synonymical remarks 

 about the species of the " breoirosfrls " section of this genus, to which section the two 

 females doubtless belong. 



In his great work ' Les Alj)heidge : Morphologic externe et interne etc.,' Ann. Sc. Nat., 

 Zool. 8" ser. t. ix. 1899, p. 1-1, Prof. Coutiere writes: — "II convient d'identifier ^. maZa- 

 haricus, de Haan, avec A. rapax, Fabricius (?), Spence Bate." In my opinion this identifi- 

 cation is erroneous, and de Haan's A. malabaricus ought to be regarded as a proper species 

 that henceforth may bear the name of hrevicristatns, under which name this species has 

 been figured by the author of the ' Fauna Japonica.' Before me are lying a typical specimen 

 of A. malabaricus, de Haan, and another of A. rajyax, de Haan, both from de Haan's typical 

 collection in the Leyden Museum, both specimens in a dry state. Through the kindness of 

 Prof. D5derlein, of Strassburg, I received also four specimens of an Aljiheush-omthe Bay 

 of Tokyo, described by Dr. Ortmann under the name of A. malabaricits (in Zool. Jahrb., 

 Syst. V. 1890, p. 181), and two, also from that Bay, of Ortmann's A. rapax (L c. p. 481). 

 The examination of these specimens proved that Ortraanu's A. malabaricus is really the 

 same species as that wliich was described by de Haan under this name and figured under 

 the name oiA. brevicristaius ; and furthermore that this species is no doubt dijfcrent from 

 Spence Bate's A. rapax (Report on the 'Challenger' Macrura, p. 552, pi. 99. fig. 1). 

 The rostrum of A. malabaricus passes backward into a carina which is subacute and 

 strongly compressed between the eyes, but which soon broadens behind the corneae and 

 becoming obtuse and rounded passes into the surface of the gastric region ; its shape is 

 therefore characteristic. The second joint of the antennular peduncle of Spence Bate's 

 A. rapax is described as three times as long as the first, but in his fig. 1 <? it appears 

 little more than twice as long; tlie peduncle resembles therefore that of do Haan's 

 malabaricus. In de Haan's A. malabaricus the antennal scale barely extends beyond the 

 antennular peduncle, wliereas in the fig. 1 <? of the ' Challenger ' Report it reaches much 

 beyond it. The telson of yi. brevicristaius appears broader in proportion to its length, 

 and the spinules of the posterior pair are situated closer together than those of the 

 anterior, whereas this is not the case in fig. 1 z. 



Not only the chclipeds, but also the four other legs, present a slenderer shape than 

 those of A. brevicristatus. In both chelipeds the upper border of the merus is obtuse 

 and g^uite unarmed, but in Spence Bate's A. rapax the upper margin ends in a sharp tootli. 

 In the latter species the upper margin of the larger chela carries no trace of the transverse 



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