240 COLLECTIONS FR03J MELANESIA. 



gascar (Rev. Deans Cowan) ; Mauritius (Lady F. Cole) ; Rodriguez 

 (G. Gulliver); Indian Ocean, Celebes, Macassar, &c. (coll. Dr. 

 Bleeher) ; Keeling Islands (Lieut. Burnaby, R.N.) ; various islands 

 of the Fiji group (II.M.S. ' Herald ') ; Samoa Islands, Upolu (Rev. 

 S. J. Whitmee) ; Sandwich Islands ( U.S. Exploring Expedition and 

 W. H. Pease) ; besides others without special or with insufficiently 

 authenticated locality. 



All the Australian examples I have seen, with one exception, 

 appear to belong to the variety (as at most I consider it) described 

 by Milne-Edwards as intermedins. One, however, of the specimens 

 obtained at West Island (No. 149) must, on account of its colora- 

 tion, be referred to the variety designated thulcujar by Owen. The 

 colour is not indicative of geographical races or subspecies, since of 

 this latter variety I have examined specimens both from the Mau- 

 ritius and the Sandwich Islands. Mr. Kingsley, in his recent 

 "Synopsis of the Grapsidae,"* does not regard these forms even as 

 varieties, but unites them all under the one designation M. messor. 



90. Chasmagnathus (Paragrapsus) laevis, Dana. 



A male and female from Port Jackson, 0-7 fins, (one numbered 

 104), are referred here. They differ somewhat from the New- 

 Zealand examples which I suppose belong to this species, in the 

 British-Museum collection, in having but very few or no yellow 

 spots on the surface of the carapace. In the New-Zealand examples 

 (Soiverby), and others without definite locality in the Museum col- 

 lection, both carapace and legs are plentifully mottled with yellow, 

 and the front is perhaps a trifle more rounded at its lateral angles ; 

 but in other particulars the specimens are so nearly alike that I do 

 not venture to regard them as belonging to distinct species. 



Mr. Kingsley, in his " Synopsis of the Grapsidae " above referred to 

 (p. 222), has referred to the synonyms of this species. He unites 

 the genera Chasmagnathus aud Paragrapsus, and the distinctions 

 between the two are certainly very slight ; but it may be convenient 

 to reserve the name Paragrapsus as a subgeneric designation, at 

 least, for the species with less convex body and broader less deflexed 

 front, which, in what may be regarded as the typical Chasmagnathi 

 (e. g. C. convexus and C. granulatus), resembles that of Helice tridens 

 in being strongly curved downward, with an arcuated anterior 

 margin that does not project in the middle line over the antennulary 

 region. 



The range of C. la>vis, as far as at present ascertained, is restricted 

 to the north and south-eastern shores of Australia and the New- 

 Zealand coasts. 



91. Sesarma bidens, De Haan ? 



Port Curtis, 7-9 fms. (No. 85). Two specimens (males). 



These examples are referred with little hesitation to S. bidens, 



* Proc. Acad Nat. ?ci. Philad. p. 190 (1880). 



