CRUSTACEA NORTH PACIFIC EXPLORING EXPEDITION IJI 



276. DROMIDIA SPONGIOSA Stimpson 



Plate XX, Fig. i 



Dromidia spongiosa Stimpson, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., x, p. 238 

 [76], 1858. 



The only specimen obtained of this small species is a female. 

 With the exception of the fingers of the chelipeds, the entire surface 

 is covered with a dense and firm envelope of pubescence, sponge-like 

 in appearance. On the carapax this covering is distinctly marked 

 with shallow pits or depressions corresponding with those of the 

 surface beneath, which is glabrous, and minutely punctate. The 

 front is triangular, pointed, and very much deflexed, much project- 

 ing downward, and deeply channeled longitudinally, so that it pre- 

 sents a bicuspid appearance from above. Its margins are smooth, 

 though flexuose, arching over the antennae, and presenting a slight 

 tooth at the inner angle of the orbit. There is no tooth on the 

 superior margin of the orbit, and none at its external angle, although 

 at this latter point there is a fissure. The antero-lateral margin is 

 entire, strongly convex, and bears a small tooth at the lateral emar- 

 gination. The meros- joint of the external maxillipeds is oblique' at 

 the anterior margin, though less so than in D. hirsutissima. Cheli- 

 peds of moderate size, with a smooth surface ; hand rather short ; 

 fingers not deflexed, and bare of pubescence except at their bases ; 

 both fingers toothed within. Feet of the fourth pair very short, 

 compressed, and truncate at the ti]) ; fifth i)air more slender and 

 longer. Abdomen (of the female) long, with a narrow, obtuse 

 median carina separating two longitudinal smooth channels ; appen- 

 dages of the penult joint concealed; terminal joint large, one-half 

 longer than tlie pemilt. Color in life reddish. Length of the cara- 

 pax in our specimen. 0.42; breadth, 0.52 inch. 



This species resembles somewhat D. iiiiidciitata Riippell and D. 

 rotunda MacLeay, from which it differs (judging from pulilished 

 accounts) in the want of tubercles at the angles of the orbits, in tlio 

 toothed dactylus of the chelipeds, and in the shapr of the meros-joint 

 of the outer maxillipeds. D. iiiiidciitata is represented in RiippeH's 

 figure as having two or three spiniform processes beside the dac- 

 tylus, at the extremity of the ])enult joint, in the fnurth and tifili 

 j^airs of feet, which is not the case in i>ur species, nor in any ntlier 

 Dromia which we have seen. 



Our species was dredged from a rocky l).>ttoni in twenty fathoms, 

 in P'alse Vuiy, Cape of Cood ITo])e. 



