(?/' Me Pontonild^e. 377 



of species which he erected into the genera CEdipus and 

 Harpiliiis. At the same time he described a genus Anehistia, 

 allied to the foregoing in the nature of the antennules and 

 mandibles, and indicoted in a footnote that the true position 

 of Ti/pion, Costa, 184-^, was in this neighbourhood. The 

 name CEdipus was already in use, and Stimpson accordingly 

 changed it to Coralliocans in I860. Anehistia, on the other 

 hand^mnst yield to Periclimenes, Costa, 1844, on the ground 

 of priority. PeJias is a name that has also been applied by 

 Roux and fleller to species of this genus, but, though prior to 

 FericUmenes, it was already preoccupied when made use of 

 by Roux. 



"^ In 1879, Kingsley, revising the Palasmonidae, dealt with 

 the above group of genera as a coherent section of his sub- 

 family Palffimoninfe, suppressing only the somewhat ill-charac- 

 terized Conchodyfes. Bate, in the Report on the ' Challenger ' 

 jMacrura (18S8), raised them to the rank of a separate 

 family, and Ortmann, writing in 1891, has some valuable 

 remarks on the Pontoniida?. The g'^nera, however, have not 

 been considered together since Kingsley's paper. 



The description of tlie important species Harpilnis inerrnis, 

 ]\liers, 1884, and H. Miersi, de Man, 1888, and the occur- 

 rence of several interesting forms, both old and new, in some 

 material from the South Seas, have led the writer to think 

 that the time is ripe for a further revision of the family. To 

 this end the present synopsis is offered. 



The characters of the Pontoniidaj are first summarized and 

 a list of the genera given, including one here detined for the 

 first time. This is followed by a discussion of the inter- 

 relationships of the genera. Then the characteristics of each 

 genus are given separately, with a list of the species to be 

 assigned to it. New sj)ecies are diagnosed but briefly, since 

 full descriptions and figures are to be given in reports on the 

 Crustacea collected in the South Seas by Dr. A. Willey * and 

 Mr. J. Stanley Gardiner. Finally, an empirical key to the 

 genera follows. 



The systematic position of the Pontoniid* may be defined 

 as follows : — 



* lu the ' Zoological Results ' of Dr. Wille\ 's voyage, now being pub- 

 lished by the Cambridge University Press. 



