CRUSTACEA. 261 



PARATYMOLUS, Miers. 



The affinity of Paratymolus, and particularly of the later described 

 species P. latipes, Haswell, and P. scxspinosm, Miers, with Telmessus 

 is pointed out by Mr. Haswell, and is undeniable, notwithstanding 

 the very differently shaped carapace of Telmessxs, and the fact that 

 in that genus the basal antennal joint has its outer margin produced 

 into a broad triangulate lobe which enters the inner orbital hiatus. 

 The affinities of Paratymolus with Homola are also very evident, 

 and I have already referred to them. In P. jpubesct ns and P. bitu- 

 berculatus the distal margin of the merus-joint of the outer maxilli- 

 pedes is somewhat rounded as in certain Inachidae, to which family 

 this genus further approximates in its slender basal antennal joint. 

 Whether the genus Paratymolus bo associated with Telmessus or not, 

 its affinities are, I think, with the Maioid An'omura, to which also 

 Homola belongs, rather than with tho Corystidse. I retain this 

 genus therefore for the present near the Dromiida?, where also 

 Haswell keeps it. 



3. Paratymolus bituberculatus, Haswell, var. gracilis. 



A male is in the collection, from Prince of Wales Channel, 

 7-9 fms., which is thus designated with some hesitation. The prin- 

 cipal character distinguishing P. bituberculatus from P. pubescens is 

 to be found in the subtriangulate chela, the upper distal end of 

 which is produced into a more or less prominent tooth ; the teeth on 

 the posterior margins of the merus and palm, which are very 

 distinctly indicated in Mr. HaswelPs figure, exist in Dr. Coppinger's 

 specimen only as small tuberculiform setigerous prominences ; and, 

 moreover, the spine in front of the principal hepatic spine, which 

 exists in the type specimens of P. pubescens and of P. bituberculatus, 

 is wanting in the example from Prince of Wales Channel, which 

 should not improbably be separated as a distinct species. 



A mutilated female, in which both chelipedes are deficient, from 

 Thursday Island, 3-4 fms. (No. 177), greatly resembles the type of 

 P. pubescens, Miers *, from Matoya, in the form of the carapace and 

 number and disposition of its spines and tubercles, differing only in 

 the somewhat less prominent rostrum, and may perhaps belong to 

 that species. 



4. Paratymolus sexspinosus. (Plate XXVII. fig. B.) 



This form is a near ally of the Paratymolus latijpes described by 

 Mr. Haswell, but differs in the following particulars : — The lobes of 

 the rostrum are blunter, and the median notch much smaller ; the 

 antero-lateral margins of the carapace are armed with only three 

 spines or teeth, including the prreocular spine, tho postocular being 

 deficient; the chelipedes and ambulatory legs in the specimens 

 examined (which, however, are females) are slenderer ; tho merus- 



* Proc. Zool. Soc. p. 45, pi. ii. fig. 6 (1879). 



