Crustacea Decapoda and Stomatopoda. 263 



The large male, the last of those included in the table of measurements, i^ 

 referred to P. simdaicus with very considerable doubt, but is perhaps merely an 

 abnormality. Both legs of the second pair are detached and only one is complete. 

 The rostrum resembles that of the other specimens, extending a little beyond 

 the scale, with an upturned apex and with 10 teeth above and 5 below. The second 

 peraeopod shows very faint traces of mottling, but is proportionately much longer than 

 in the other specimens and exhibits great differences in the relative lengths of the 

 segments. The dactylus is proportionately much shorter and the carpus and palm 

 longer. Cowles {loc. cit.) has given the measurements of a number of Philippine 

 specimens of P. sundaicus of sizes comparable with this male : but in all of them the 

 fingers are considerably more than half the length of the palm, whereas in Dr. 

 x\nnandale's specimen they are little more than one third the length. 



The specimens in the collection were found in the Tale Sap near Singgora and in 

 pools and ditches in the vicinity ; they were obtained in water of specific gravity 

 varying from 1-004 to 1-0085. There are also a few small individuals from the 

 Patani river in the Siamese Malay States. These were found in fresh water, but in a 

 locality subject to tidal influence. Dr. Annandale notes that, in addition to the 

 tortoise-shell-like mottlings on the chelipedes, living specimens showed a small dark 

 spot on each side of each abdominal somite. 



Specimens which I regard as specifically identical with those obtained by Dr. 

 Annandale are recorded by de Man from Java, Flores and Celebes and by Cowles from 

 the Philippines. Most other records appear somewhat doubtful. 



Henderson and Matthai ' regard P. sundaicus as a synonym of P. idae, but I am 

 not at present prepared to follow them in this view. The specimens I have examined 

 seem to differ conspicuously in the form of the rostrum from any of those which they 

 have recorded from S. India under the latter name. P. sundaicus was described by 

 Heller from a very young specimen and its true identity is still uncertain. The notes 

 made by Koelbel on the type and pubHshed by de Man ^ have led the latter author '^ 

 and Coutière * to suggest the possibility of its identity with von Martens' P. dispar 

 and this view seems to have more to recommend it than that adopted by Henderson 

 and Matthai. If proved it will, however, have unfortunate consequences, for 

 P. dispar must then be known as P. sundaicus, while a new name will probably 

 be necessary for the form described above. 



De Man {loc. cit., 1897) has also suggested that Heller's P. sundaicus may be 

 specifically identical with Dana's P. equidens from Singapore. But Dana's species 

 was described from a mutilated specimen which, apparently, is not now in existence. 

 It is exceedingly improbable that the species will ever be recognised with cer- 

 tainty and it is best that it should be altogether ignored in future work. 



1 Henderson and Matthai, Rec. Ind. Mus., V. , p. 285 (1910). 



2 De Man, loc. cit., 1892, p. 437, 



3 De Man, loc. cit., 1897, P- 781. 



* Coutière, Ann. Sci. nat., Zool. (8), XII, p. 335 (1901). 



