SOUTH DEVON AND CORNWALL MARINE FAUNA AND FLORA. S/Q 



\Ve have recently taken three fine specimens on the shelly ground off the 

 Dodman in about thirty fathoms of water. The fii'st specimen that we ob- 

 tained differed from those previously known and described bj having, instead 

 of a long central rostriform spine flanked by two shorter ones of atialogous 

 construction, three equally important anteriorly porrected spines — this in 

 consequence of the two lateral spines being developed to a length corre- 

 sponding with that of the central in normal sjjecimens ; whilst in another 

 specimen the central spine appears to be rather longer in proportion to the 

 lateral ones than that figured by either Leach or Prof. Bell, and the specimen 

 bears a very close relationship to Galathea monodon of Milne-Edwards from 

 Brazil— a cii'cumstance that supports an opinion that we have elsewhere 

 expressed, that there is a very considerable resemblance between the Crustacea 

 of the South-American coast and that of the British seas. 



This species, Galathea hamffica (Munida rondeletri, BeU), is stated to be one 

 of the rarest of our Crustacea, and is seldom to be met with in our museums. 

 Its habitat is most probably the temperate latitudes in tolerably deep water 

 on the western shores of Europe ; for although extending as far as the Shet- 

 lands, yet the specimens that have been dredged in the colder regions are, 

 we believe, invariably very small and the inhabitants of very deep water. 



Among the Galathece that we have taken on our coast, and which embrace 

 all that have been previously known as British, is one that we think must be 

 accepted as not having been previously described. 



The largest specimen, measuring from the extremity of the tail to that of 

 the extended hands, is little more than two inches, of which the animal 

 itself, measuring from the extremity of the rostrum to that of the taU, is 

 little more than one inch. This species differs from either of the others in 

 having the large pair of chelate pereiopoda flat and broad, the fingers much 

 curved, very distant, and meeting only at their apex when closed, furnished 

 on the inside mth a considerable brush of hairs, and armed near the base of 

 the moveable finger with a prominent tubercle or tooth, but which appears 

 to be of little importance, since it is not able to impinge against the ojDposite 

 finger. "VVo have sometimes thought that this specimen may only be an 

 extreme form of the male of Galathea squamifera ; but the armature of the 

 surface of the hands, which is generally a safe guide in specific character, 

 has a distinct variation. In G. squamifera the arms are covered generally 

 with a series of curved scale-like tuberculations, the anterior margin of 

 which is divided into a series of bead-like elevations, while in the most 

 typical parts, such as on the surface of the meros and carpus, the central 

 prominence is elevated to a point, and the whole of the tubercular ridge is 

 crowned by a row of short hairs so minute that they arc not perceptible ex- 

 cept by the assistance of a lens. These tuberculations are closely packed and 

 regular. 



In the supposed new species the tuberculations are less prominent and 

 defined, the margins of which can only be perceived to be at all baccatcd by 

 careful arrangement of the light, while the cilia, being far less numerous, are 

 yet more conspicuous under the lens. If it be only a variation of G. squami- 

 fera, as we are much inclined stiU to consider it, it is too important a 

 variation to be passed over without notice, and the Eeporter has named it 

 provisionally Galathea digitidistans, until the observation of a larger series 

 of specimens than we have as yet seen may enable us to arrive at a correct 

 conclusion. 



The zoe of the genus Porcellana has, we believe, been figured from exotic 

 species by Dana ; and having the opportunity of observing that of P. x^laty- 



