214 COLLECTIONS FROM MELANESIA. 



The Oriental specimen referred by White (List Crust. Brit. Mus. 

 p. 13, 1847) to C. venosus certainly does not belong to this species. 



45. Leptodius exaratus (M.-Edw.). 



Here are referred, at least provisionally, an adult male from Port 

 Curtis (No. 95), obtained on the beach, and two smaller specimens 

 dredged in 7-11 fms. at the same locality (No. 85), also six speci- 

 mens obtained on the beach between tide-marks at Port Molle 

 (No. 103). 



The Port-Curtis examples and one from Port Molle (in spirit) 

 are of a yellowish-brown or greenish hue ; the five remaining 

 examples from the latter-mentioned locality are purplish red, the 

 carapace being obscurely punctulated with spots of a similar but 

 darker hue. Several of these specimens, in the form of the teeth of 

 the antero-lateral margins and in the lesser distinctness of the areo- 

 lation of the carapace, resemble L. gracilis (Dana), as do also specimens 

 in the British-Museum collection from Australia, the Mauritius, and 

 the Fiji and Sandwich Islands ; but these are connected by such 

 gradual and insensible gradations with the more convex distinctly- 

 areolated and irregularly-toothed specimens referred to L. exaratus, 

 that I must regard L. gracilis as very doubtfully distinct. 



Prof. Alphonse Milne-Edwards and others have referred to the 

 wide geographical distribution of this common Oriental form*; and 

 on this account, and also because of the uncertainty I at present feel 

 regarding the true specific limitations of L. exaratus, I think it 

 at present needless to refer in detail to the numerous examples in 

 the British-Museum collection which belong to it or to closely 

 allied types. I may note, however, the occurrence of several 

 varieties (as I believe) of this species at Shark Bay, W. Australia 

 {H.M.S. 'Herald'). 



46. Leptodius lividus. 



Xantho lividus, De Haan, Faun. Japan., Crust, p. 48, pi. xiii. fig. 6 

 (1835). 



Seven small specimens, males and females, are in the collection ; 

 the carapace of the largest male measures but 5 lines (nearly 

 11 millim.) in length and 8 lines (17 millim.) in width; these 

 specimens (in spirit) are of a pale greenish or brownish yellow, and 

 agree in all particulars with De Haan's diagnosis, except that the 

 chelipedes have their palmar joints (like the wrists) rather coarsely 

 granulated or even rugose on the upper and on the upper part of 

 the outer surfaces. 



These specimens were obtained on the beach at Flinders Island, 

 under stones. 



They are connected by a nearly complete series of intermediate 

 forms (such as L. distingendus) with Leptodius exaratus. 



* Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. ix. p. 223 (1873). 



