1921 J Schmitt: The Marine Decapod Crustacea of California 65 



Biological Survey of San Francisco Bay. — Spirontocaris paludicola 

 was found in shallow water, in patches of eel grass along the Raccoon 

 Strait's shore of Angel Island, where one specimen was taken by 

 means of a boat-dredge in 2 to 5y 2 fathoms (D 5763), and among 

 the algal growths in pools on the tidal flats north of the Standard Oil 

 pier, Richmond, where also only a single specimen was obtained. 



IV. Group with no supraorbital spines — {Continued) 



Section b. Eostrum shorter than the carapace, not exceeding three-fourths its 

 length. (In this subgroup the third maxillipeds exceed the antennal scale except 

 in occasional specimens of S. picta, in which the maxillipeds attain but fail to 

 reach beyond the tip of the antennal scale, and in S. maorophtlialma, in which they 

 fall short of the tip of the antennal scale. In S. taylori, palpator and brevirostris 

 the third maxillipeds exceed the tip of the antennal scale by the whole, or the 

 greater part of the terminal joint, and occasionally in some adults of the two 

 latter species by the two last joints of the maxillipeds. In S. cristata and the 

 greater number of specimens of S. picta the third maxillipeds only slightly exceed 

 the antennal scale. In S. bracliydactyla the third maxillipeds exceed the antennal 

 scale by half the length of the last joint. The basal spine of the antennules in 

 all the above species usually reaches to about the middle of the second segment 

 of the peduncle, except in S. m-acrophthalrna and S. bracliydactyla ; in the former 

 it does not quite reach the end of the first segment, while in the latter it varies 

 from being slightly shorter to slightly longer than the first segment of the anten- 

 nular peduncle.) (For section a, see p. 58.) 



Spirontocaris palpator (Owen) 



Sippolyte palpator Owen, in Zoology of Captain Beeehey's Voyage (in 

 the "Blossom"), Crustacea, p. 89, pi. 28, fig. 3, 1839. 



Heptacarpus palpator Holmes, Occas. Papers Calif. Acad. Sci., 7, 196, pi. 3, 

 figs. 48, 49, 1900. 



Spirontocaris palpator Bathbun, H. A. E., 10, 98, 1904; Hilton, Jour. Ent. 

 Zool., Pomona Coll., 8, 69, 1916; ibid., 10, 54, 1918. 



Fig. 43. Spirontocaris palpator; a, lateral view of carapace; b, acicle (after 

 Holmes). 



Characters. — Antennal scale longer than the telson; antennal peduncle reaching 

 about to the middle of the scale. Eostrum reaching cornea or beyond, but not 

 exceeding first segment of antennular peduncle; armed above with four to seven 

 teeth, the last two or three of which are on the carapace; below without teeth 

 or a small one near the tip ; tip of rostrum usually simple, sometimes bifid or trifid. 



