256 COLLECTIONS FROM MELANESIA. 



111. Matuta victrix (Fair.). 



Two males are in the collection from the Percy Islands, Queens- 

 land, 0-5 fms. (No. 91). 



Of this common species specimens are in the British-Museum 

 collection from Torres Straits (J. B. Juices), and Shark Bay (F. 

 M. Rayner, H.M.S. 'Herald'). Also from the Red Sea, Zanzibar 

 (Dr. Kirk); Pondicherry, Indian Ocean (Gen. ffardwicke) ; Madras 

 (India Mas. coll.); Ceylon (E. W. H. Holdsworth) ; Penang (India 

 Mas. coll.): Celebes, Macassar, Bali, and Batjan (coll. Dr. Bleeker); 

 Borneo (Admiral/;/ ). 



Of the very distinct variety crebrepunctata, Miers, there are 

 specimens from Japan (Leyden coll.), Fiji Islands, Vanua Levu (F. 

 M. Rayner), and Mallicollo, New Hebrides ("FT. Wykeham Perry). 



112. Matuta inermis. (Plate XXVI. fig. C.) 



I must, at least provisionally, thus designate a female from 

 Albany Island, 3-4 fms., two small males from Thursday 

 Island, 3-1 fms. (No. 177), three from Prince of "Wales Channel, 

 7 fms. (No. 169), and four collected in Torres Straits at 10 fms. 

 (No. 158), also four specimens (of which three are very small, 

 and the fourth, a male, but little larger) from the ' Herald ' col- 

 lection (F. M. Rayner), without definite locality, in the British- 

 Museum collection. In all of these specimens the carapace is rather 

 longer than broad, proportionately longer and narrower than in other 

 species of the genus; the tubercles of the carapace are arranged nearly 

 as in M. banksii, which this species further resembles in having the 

 anterior half of the carapace coarsely and distinctly granulated. The 

 long lateral marginal spines, however, which exist in every other 

 species of Matuta are in M. inermis obsolete and represented merely 

 by a small tubercle. The interrupted ridge on the middle of the 

 outer surface of the palm is parallel with the inferior margin, and 

 the outer surface of the mobile finger presents scarcely any trace of 

 a longitudinal ridge (fig. c). Hence this species is to be referred to 

 my second section (B) of the genus. The chelipedes differ, however, 

 from those of M. banksii and other species in having the carpus 

 distinctly granulated, and in having no spine, but only a tubercle, 

 at the proximal end of the ridge on the exterior surface of the palm, 

 &c. (see the figure). Length of the specimen from Albany Island 

 about 10 lines (21 millim.), breadth about 9| (20 millim.). The male 

 above referred to is somewhat smaller. In only a few of the speci- 

 mens is any trace of coloration to be seen ; and in these examples the 

 markings are in the form of largish patches or blotches, sometimes 

 defined by darker marginal lines, and in some of the spirit-specimens 

 there are longitudinal waved lines on the posterior regions. 



Xo reference was made to this species in my " Monograph of the 

 genus Matuta," * because the few specimens then before me were 



* Trans. Linn. Soc. ser. 2, Zool. i. p. 243 (1877). 



