AXIUS ACUTIFRONS. 103 



lower side ; the merus and carpus are armed with spines arranged in longi- 

 tudinal rows ; there is a row of spines on the upper margin of the propodite 

 (the row is double at the proximal end), another series on tlie outer face 

 reaching from the proximal end about half way to the distal end, and 

 another still shorter row of more rudimentary spines just outside the latter 

 series ; the fingei's are separated by a gap ; their prehensile edges are den- 

 ticulate, with one or more prominent teeth near the base of the dactylus. 

 Ambulatory appendages : meri and carpi of the first and second pairs spinu- 

 lose along the upper edge, these joints being spineless on the third pair. All 

 of the ambulatory appendages are subchelate, the distal end of the propodite 

 being enlarged and furnished with spines against which the spined dactylus 

 closes. 



Length (male), 17 mm. ; carapace, 10.5 mm. ; rostrum, 4.5 mm. ; breadth 

 of carapace, 7.7 mm. ; cheliped, 31 mm. (merus, 7 mm., carpus, 9 mm., chela, 

 14 mm., dactylus, 5 mm.). 



Station 3354. 322 fathoms. 1 fem. ovig. 

 3355. 182 " 1 male. 



Family AXIID^. 



AXIUS Leach. 

 Trans. Linu. Soc. London, XL 335, 343, 1815. 



AxiuS acutifrons (Bate). 

 Plate XXVIIL, Fig. 2. 



Eiconaxius actttifrons Bate, Rep. Challenger Macrura, p. 40, Plate V. Fig. 2, 1888. 

 Axius acutifrons F.\x., Bull. Mus. Conip. Zool, XXIV. 193, 1893. 



Station 3358. 555 fathoms. 2 males, 4 fem. ovig. 

 " 3359. 465 " 3 males, 3 fem. (2 ovig.). 



The Challenger specimens were taken off Banda, lat. 4° 31' S., long. 

 129° 57' 20" E., in 360 fathoms. 



The females carry about nine eggs, which are large for the size of the 

 animal (1.5 X 1 m.). 



Spence Bate established the genus Eiconaxius to receive three species 

 from the " Challenger," which differ from Axius stirhyndms Leach — the type 

 of the genus ^x/ms — in the presence of a long spine (stylocerite) on the 

 second joint of the external antennae outside of the movable acicle (scapho- 



