2 DR. J. G. DE MAN ON THE PODOPHTHALMOUS 



109 species were enumerated from Madras, Ceylon, and the 

 Nicobar Islands, a fifth of which were new to science. Scarcely- 

 more than a fourth of these 109 species occur in the Mergui 

 Collection. The Decapodous and Stomatopodous Crustacea in 

 this interesting Mergui Collection that are new to the Eauna 

 of the Bay of Bengal prove to be about two thirds of the 

 number of species hitherto known as inhabiting it ! The species 

 therefore of th«se two groups now ascertained to occur in the 

 Bay amount to nearly 300. 



These numbers are eloquent and demonstrate that the col- 

 lection made by Prof. Anderson is a most interesting one, and 

 a valuable contribution to the Fauna of the north-eastern part 

 of the Indian Ocean. 



The following table gives a summary of the number of species, 

 of the new species, and of the specimens in the Collection, 

 according to the subdivisions of the group : — 



Number of Species. New Species. Specimens. 



Oxyrhyncha 9 3 21 



Cyclometopa 48 5 205 



Catometopa 47 17 540 



Oxystomata 11 1 26 



Anomura 26 6 144 



Macriira 19 6 103 



Stomatopoda 4 1 19 



Poecilopoda 2 ... 3 



166 38 1061 



These results show that the subtribe Catometopa contains 

 comparatively the largest number of new species, and that more 

 than a half of all the specimens belong to it. 



The geuera of Catometopa include many groups that are at 

 present very insufficiently and unsatisfactorily known : I have 

 only to refer to the genera Telphusa, Ocypoda, Sesarma, and 

 Gelasimus as instances of the great confusion that still prevails 

 regarding these common Indian forms. Only five years ago 

 I first pointed out the distinctive characters of the common and 

 widely distributed Ocypoda cordimana — a species at that time so 

 unsatisfactorily known that it was almost impossible to dis- 

 tinguish it from allied forms, although it had been described 

 more than half a century before ! 



