CRUSTACEA. 231 



tralia (21. du Boulay). It is retained as a distinct species by Koss- 

 inann, who unites, however, under the designation Th. prymna, 

 6everal of the species regarded as distinct by A. M. -Edwards (vide 

 'Zool. Reis. roth. Meer. ' i. p. 17, 1^77). 



70. Thalamita sinia, M.-Edw. 



Small specimens are in the first collection from Port Molle, ob- 

 tained In 'tween tide-marks (No. 103) and at 14 fms. (No. 93) ; and 

 in the second collection, from Thursday Island, 3-4 fms. (Xos. 175, 

 177), 4-5 fms. (No. 165), and Port Darwin, obtained on the beach 

 (Xo. 176). 



In three very small specimens from Port Denison, Queensland, 

 4 fms. (Xo. Ill), two of which are females with ova, tho median 

 lobes of the front arc sinuatcd, and the front thus appears very ob- 

 scurely 6-lobed. This is probabby a peculiarity due to the small size 

 of the specimens examined ; the breadth of the carapace of one of 

 the females is barely 4 lines (84 millim.). 



Of this species there are specimens in the British-Museum collec- 

 tion obtained between Cumberland Island and Point Slade and off 

 Cape Capricorn (J. Macgillivray, II. M.S. ' Rattlesnake ') ; also from 

 Moreton Bav and Port Jackson, and from Swan River (J. B. Jukes) 

 and Shark Bay, W. Australia (F. 21. Rayner, H.M.S. 'Herald'); 

 also from Xew Zealand (purchased), and from the Indian Ocean 

 (General IlardwicJce), aud Aku Sima, Japan (Capt. H. C. St. John) ; 

 besides others without special indication of locality. A. Milne- 

 Edwards records it from Xew Caledonia. The specimens from the 

 Indian Ocean have the chelipedes more distinctly tuberculated than 

 the other examples in the collection, but cannot, I think, on this 

 account be separated, even as a distinct variety. Erom the Thala- 

 mita chaptali, noticed below, T. sima is distinguished not only by the 

 much more acute lateral teeth of the carapace, the last of which is 

 rather more prominent than the rest, but also by the smoother 

 sternum and by the well-developed spines of the palms of the 

 chelipedes. In T. chaptali the last of the antero-lateral teeth is (if 

 any thing) smaller than the preceding tooth, and the palmar spines 

 are nearly obsolete *. 



* I may take this opportunity of noting that there is now in the collection of 

 the British Museuin a specimen from Ceylon (E. W. H. Holdsvorth) apparently 

 referable to this exceedingly rare Thalamita, originally described from the Red 

 Sea, of which A. Milne-Edwards, when he published his Monograph of the 

 Portunidse (Ai'ch. Mus. H. N. x. p. 360, 1861), wrote: — " Cette espece parait 

 extremement rai-e, elle n'existe dans aucun Musee, soit de France, soit de 

 Angleterre, soit de Hollande." 



This example is an adult male, and agrees very well with M. -Edwards's 

 description and Savigny's figure of T. chaptali, except as regards the chelipedes, 

 the arm of which is strigose, and the wrist and palm and fingers very closely 

 and distinctly granulated; the sternum is also finely sculptured. As some 

 indications of granulations appear on the wrist of the left-hand chelipede in 

 Savigny's figure, I do not venture to regard our specimen as distinct. Should 

 future researches, however, demonstrate it to be so, it may be designated 

 T. holdsworfhi. 



