258 Capt. A. C. MacGilchrist on Decapod Crustacea 



female and a youn^ male. This season two males were 

 canjjlit at Sta. 333, off the west coast of Ceylon, 400 fathoms. 

 Description of adult male. — Tlie chclipods are very 

 unequal ; the right is iu all joints and in all dimensions much 

 larger than the left : the disparity in size is most marked in 

 the palm, the right being many times larger than the left. 

 The left cheliped resembles that of the female, is not en- 

 larged, and is more slender than the first and second pairs of 

 ambulatory legs; the right cheliped is more massive than 

 these legs in all joints. The left cheliped does not reach as 

 far as the fingers of tlie right, and the right cheliped is about 

 three quarters the length of the first pair of ambulatory legs. 

 The fingers meet only at their tips, and the prehensile edges 

 are smooth and without a vestige of teeth, unless a smooth 

 rounded lobe or bulging on the under surface of the free 

 finger of the enlarged cheliped be excepted. The palm of 

 the enlarged cheliped is large, broad, and inflated, and the 

 fingers are short and stout. 



Male, 

 mm. 



Length of carapace 12 



Breadth „ 12 



Length of smaller cheliped 17^ 



,, larger „ 24 



„ first ambulatory legs 35 



„ second „ „ 40 



A noteworthy and what appears to be a specific character 

 of E. hirsuta is the length of snout or spout formed by the 

 efferent branchial channels. This spout, in either sex, 

 extends forwards well between the bases of the anteunules. 

 In none of the males in the Museum collection do the 

 external orbital spines reach quite as far forwards as the 

 rostral spines ; they fall short, however, by very little. The 

 inner pair of frontal teeth have a distinct tendency to be 

 stouter and longer than the outer pair and to point slightly 

 outwards. 



The large male, which has the dimensions given above, 

 ■will be figured in the next issue of " Illustrations of the 

 Zoology of R.I.M.S. ' Investigator.' " 



G Y C L O M E T O P A. 



Fam. Xauthidae. 

 Xanthodes, Dana. 

 Xanthodes cumatodes, sp. n. 

 Carapace roughly hexagonal ; frontal and antcro-latcral 



