36 FOSSIL MALACOSTRACOUS CRUSTACEA. 



very obvious in the position of the eyes, in which it differs from the other two recent 

 genera of the family. 



The literary history, if it may be so termed, of this species, is somewhat curious. A 

 single specimen only was known to be in existence, until those above referred to were found 

 to be contained in the rich collections of Mr. Bowerbank and Mr. Wetherell. That spe- 

 cimen is now, and has been for very many years, in the British Museum. It formed 

 the subject of a description with a figure by the late M. Konig in his ' Icones Fossilium 

 Sectiles,' under the name of Scyllarus (?) tuberculatus. This proves, on examination, 

 as was first pointed out to me by Mr. Woodward, to be artificially made up ; the whole 

 surface of the carapace is fictitious, and the very tubercles* on which the name was founded 

 exist only in obedience to the skill and trickery of the artist. All the distinctive characters, 

 even of the family to which it belongs, are thus lost, but Mr. Konig with great acumen 

 recognised its affinities from its general form, and named it as above. In Professor Morris's 

 most useful and elaborate ' Catalogue* it is mistakenly referred to the Brachyurous genus 

 Xant/topsis, as a synonym of Z. nodosus, of M'Coy, simply, as I presume, from its specific 

 name tuberculatus ; and this oversight probably arose from the specimen not having 

 been seen, and the figure itself having been forgotten by the learned author. 



The specific name, having been founded on an error, must be changed; and I have 

 great pleasure in the opportunity afforded me of naming it after my old friend Mr. Konig, 

 who first distinguished it, and appreciated its relations. 



family— ASTACIDjE. 



Genus — Hoploparia, M'Coy. 



Char. Gen. Testa subcompressa, lateribus latis; sulco cervicali profundo, latera 

 versus abbreviato ; sulco hepatico bifnrcato, X-formi ; rostro subulato ; processu supra- 

 antennali semicylindraceo, basin squamae antennas externse tegente. Pedes antici 

 inaequales ; major robustus, digitis fortiter tuberculatis ; alter gracilis, digitis denticulis 

 numerosis, subaequalibus, armatis : pedes reliqui gracillimi. Abdomen subcylindraceum, 

 epimeris falcatis, acuminatis. 



The very close affinity of this genus to Homarus, as exemplified in the common lobster, 

 H. vulgaris, might lead the naturalist at first sight to consider the fossil species as scarcely 

 generically distinct from the recent one ; and the late Mr. George Sowerby has accordingly 

 named and described one from the Greensand of Lyme Regis, as a true Astacus, from 



* Mr. Konig' s words are, "tubercula in utroque thoracis latere, duo." 



