I9I3-J S. Kemp: Crustacea Stomatopoda of the Indo-Paci fie Region. 153 



But G. spinosus, which is unquestionably more remote from G. chiragra, he includes 

 under the latter name as a variety. 



G. demani is, it seems, a smaller form than G. chiragra and does not exceed 40 mm. 

 in length. The spinulation of the telson is most astonishingly variable (as will be seen 

 by reference to pi. ix, figs. 109-111) ; but even if, as is not unlikely, an individual 

 wholly destitute of spinules should appear, the other characters noted above will, I 

 believe, remain amply sufficient to justify specific separation from G. chiragra. The 

 variation in the number of spinules is unquestionably continuous. 



Gonodactylus spinosus, Bigelow, described one month later than Henderson's 

 G. demani, differs from that species only in the slightly greater proportional length of 

 the telson and in the suppression of the intermediate teeth of the margin. But G. 

 demani itself shows no little variation in this respect, and in the Indian specimens 

 which I have referred to spinosus, these teeth are slightly better developed than in the 

 typical individual figured by Manchester. I am forced therefore to the conclusion, 

 already suggested by Nobili, 1906 (a), p. 331, that G. spinosus can, at most, only be 

 retained as a variety of G. demani. 1 The form appears to be rare ; in the details of its 

 spinulation it is perhaps as variable as G. demani, 1 but on this point little is known. 



Borradaile's Gonodactylus espinosus, known only from a single specimen of small 

 size, differs from spinosus solely in the greater breadth of the telson and in the total 

 absence of spinules on its dorsal surface. In G. demani the variation in the number of 

 spinules, as illustrated in the material examined, is so great that should a wholly smooth 

 example be added thereto the series would still be almost continuous in its variation. 

 On analogy therefore with its ally it may be expected that a complete transition between 

 spinosus and espinosus will ultimately be found and, in giving the latter name admission 

 as a variety, it must be understood that with the access of fresh material there is a pro- 

 bability that the name will cease to possess any greater significance than ' incipiens,' 

 ' tumid us ' and others which have been employed in the case of G. chiragra. 



In his inclusion of spinosus and espinosus as varieties of G. chiragra Manchester 

 has not, I believe, been followed by any subsequent writer, and I am unable to find any 

 sufficient reasons for such a course either in his work or from an examination of the 

 material in the Indian Museum. On the contrary the separation of G. chiragra and its 

 variety from G. demani and its variety has been conspicuously easy in performance. 



Gonodactylus festae, Nobili, is an Atlantic species resembling G. oerstedi in the 

 possession of a short additional carina on the intermediate marginal spines of the telson, 

 but differing in the spinulation of this segment. It is only known from the original 

 description based on a small number of specimens. It bears, perhaps, much the same 

 relation to G. oerstedi that G. demani does to G. chiragra, though, according toNobili's 

 account, it differs from all these and resembles de Man's acutirostris in the sharply pro- 

 duced antero-lateral angles of the rostrum. 



Gonodactylus glabrous, Brooks, and G. graphurus, Miers, are more clearly dis- 

 tinct and in the possession of five long keels in the middle of the dorsal surface of the 



1 See addendum, p. 198. 



