280 COLLECTIONS FROM MELANESIA. 



median spines, as in Stirapson's description), but the median spine is 

 itself arcuated and very distinctly denticulated on the lateral mar- 

 gins as well as on the dorsal surface, and there are two spines on 

 the front of the branchial regions. Nevertheless a sufficient series of 

 specimens might perhaps hereafter show the Australian to be a mere 

 variety of the Japanese form. 



In the absence of the supraocular spines these species resemble 

 the American genus (or subgenus) Galathodes, A. M. -Edwards*, but 

 the cornea? of the eyes are considerably dilated, and the dactyli of 

 the ambulatory legs (in M. spinulifera) are not strongly spinubse. 

 Of all the numerous American species of Munida described by A. 

 M. -Edwards (t. c. pp. 47-52) the nearest allies to M. spinulifera are 

 apparently M. iris and M. irasa, from which 31. spinulifera is dis- 

 tinguished by having the first two segments of the postabdomen 

 armed with several spinules &c. 



24. Mastigochirus quadrilobatus, Miers. 



Seven specimens were collected in Prince of Wales Channel, 

 5-7 fms. (Xo. 150), which scarcely differ from the type from the 

 Philippines in the British-Museum collection except in having the 

 median frontal lobes generally somewhat more acute. A careful 

 comparison of these specimens with tho (previously) unique dried 

 type example shows that the number of joints in the terminal fla- 

 gelliform portion of the anterior limbs (which arc imperfectly seen 

 on account of the hairs with which they are thickly clothed) wa9 

 understated in the original description ; instead of being ten or 

 twelve, they are usually twice as numerous. 



MACEUKA. 



1. Gebia carinicauda, Stimpson. 



Two females are in the collection from the beach at Thursday 

 Island (Xo. 167). Another in the British Museum was collected 

 by Mr. MacFarlane on the shores of one of the islands in Torres 

 Straits. Stimpson's types were from Hong Kong. These specimens 

 agree very well with Stimpson's description, except that the upper 

 margins of the dactyli of the anterior legs can scarcely be de- 

 scribed as carinated. The spinules of the front are almost com- 

 pletely concealed by the pubescence, but are distinctly visible in a 

 lateral view. 



In a smaller specimen, also a female and from the same locality, 

 the spinules mentioned by Stimpson as existing above the genital 

 apertures in the third pair of legs (and which are very distinct in 

 the larger examples in the ' Alert ' collection) are not developed. 



* Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. viii. p. 53 (1880). 



