1908,] Records of the Indian Museum. 31 



spine of the basal prolonga- 

 ^,. tion of the uropod usually 



longer than the inner ; 

 dactyle of raptatorial claw 

 with not less than six margi- 

 nal spines . . . . Genus Lvsiosquilla. 

 (2) Primary marginal spines of 

 telson large, with more than 

 four secondar}^ spines be- 

 tween the intermediate and 

 the submedian ; inner spine 

 of the basal prolongation of 

 the uropod longer than 

 the outer ; dactyle of the 

 raptatorial claw usually 

 with no more than six mar- 

 ginal spines . . . . Genus Sqiiilh. 



Bigelow, in a report on the Stomatopods collected by the 

 '' Albatross," follows Brooks in his definition of the genus (Proc. 

 U. S. Nat. Museum, vol. 17, 1894). 



Of the three features chosen to define Squilla from Lysiosquilla 

 the ''Investigator" species exhibits only two, for Lysiosquilla is 

 the genus which possesses, according to the above definition, not 

 less than six raptatorial spines (some species of this genus have ten). 

 In the form of the telson and uropods, however, the new species 

 is obviously a true Squilla] the figure (plate iii) shows this better 

 than au}^ verbal description. 



At least two other species of Squilla possess a larger number 

 of raptatorial teeth than six. Squilla raphidea, a ver}- widely dis- 

 tributed species, has eight : 5. armata is referred to by Bigelow 

 {ant. cit.) as having, " y to 9 teeth on the raptatorial claw, rarely 

 6 " ; this species evidently resembles 5. investigatoris in the nature 

 of its variability, though this occurs to a less degree in the former 

 species. 



Except tor these two species the genus Squilla seems to be 

 remarkably constant as regards the raptatorial claw. In order to 

 test and illustrate the stability of this appendage, the number of 

 teeth on the claws of all the Squillas in the Indian Museum was 

 counted. The collection is a large one and in excellent order ; as 

 can be seen from the following list, it has been gathered from eastern 

 tropical seas in a wide sense, though chiefly from the Bay of Bengal 

 and the Arabian Sea. It should be mentioned that all of one species 

 from one named locality have been included in one group, although 

 they may have been received from different donors at different times. 

 For example, the 71 specimens of S. interrupta from Hongkong 

 were received on four separate occasions, the 39 specimens of 5. 

 hemischista were obtained from three separate stations on the Orissa 

 coast ; the same may be said of the 55 specimens of S. hemischista 

 from Madras. Although included in one group the specimens were 



