8 Memoirs of the Indian Museum. [Vol. IV, 



Gonodactylus chiragva.— Two individuals of this species bore on the under surface 

 of the thorax and between the pleopods examples of Epistethe gonodactyli , a 

 hitherto unknown genus and species of Gastropod Mollusc (Preston, Rec. Ind. 

 Mus., vii, 1912, pp. 126, 127, text-figs.). 



Coutière (1905) gives an interesting account of Lysiosquilla digueti, a species which 

 lives commensally along with a Polyno'id in the burrows of Balanoglossus. 



The natives of Bengal for the most part classify marine animals according to the 

 estimation in which they are held as articles of diet. For this purpose they consider 

 Stomatopods worthless ; they term them chingri-pokâ (prawn-insects) or dariâ-pokâ 

 (séa-insects) in contradistinction to chingri-mu.hli (prawn-fish), i.e. Penaeidae and 

 Palaemonidae. It is, however, possible that they are used for food in some parts of 

 the Indian Empire : in the Museum collection is a large example of Squilla raphidea 

 which was purchased in the market at Akyab in Arakan. 



Of the one hundred and thirty-nine species and varieties of Stomatopoda which are 

 known ninety-seven have been found within the limits of the area dealt with in this 

 paper, while fifty -four have been taken on the coasts of the Indian Empire and of 

 Ceylon. 



The tables ' on pages 10 and 11 will give a general idea of the known distribution of 

 the species in the Indo-pacific area. 



Only a very few forms found in this region have been discovered also in the 

 Atlantic or on the West Coast of America : — 



Squilla armata . . . . Chili and Patagonia. 



Florida, Bermuda, Porto Rico. 

 Canaries, Madeira. 

 California. 

 West Indies. 



Pseudosquilla ciliata 



Pseudosquilla oculata 



Pseudosquilla stylifera 



Lysiosquilla maculât a 

 In addition Lysiosquilla biminiensis , represented in the Indo-pacific by the form 

 pacificus, is found at the Bimini Islands, Bahamas, and the Atlantic Gonodactylus 

 oerstedi is so closely allied to the Indo-pacific G. chiragra that some will perhaps 

 prefer to regard it merely as a subspecies. 



The figures on page 12 are intended to elucidate some of the terms employed in 

 this memoir which might otherwise prove confusing. In such matters as the nomen- 

 clature of the various carinae of the carapace, abdomen and telson no exact unifor- 

 mity is to be found in the literature and I have consequently adopted those which 

 appear to be most suitable. 



The form of the eye is often of great importance in systematic work. The 

 relation of the corneal and peduncular axes, whether at right angles or oblique, 

 affords a valuable criterion and scarcely calls for any explanation (see Bigelow, 1^94, 

 text-fig. 14, p. 522). In certain species, more particularly in the case of the closely 



1 It will be noticed that the divisions into which the Indo-pacific area has been grouped for the 

 purposes of this table are by no means equal. But the majority of the specimens comprised in the 

 collection under examination are from Indian localities and it has been thought best to give the distribu- 

 tion on these coasts in somewhat fuller detail. 



