I. '08. 123 



Vertical range. — Exclusively littoral on the west coast of 

 Ireland, but frequently found in the Mediterranean between 

 20 and 30 fathoms. 



Family PROCESSIDAE. 



Genus Frocessa, Leach. 



Nika, Bell, 1853. 



Processa, Stebbing, 1905 (tihi syn.). 



Bell recognized two British species of this genus, Nika 

 edulis, Eisso, and K. Couchi, Bell. As has been several times 

 suggested, the latter of these is probably founded on an ab- 

 normal specimen of the former. A''. Couchi has only twice 

 been recorded ; the type specimen was taken off the Cornwall 

 coast and the capture of a second example is very briefly 

 noticed by Patterson (1898) in an account of the Crustacea of 

 Great Yarmouth : this specimen, like the type, has unfortu- 

 nately been lost. Nika edulis, or as it should more correctly 

 be called, Processa canaliculata , is a form which shows an 

 exceedingly wide range of variation, and in the absence of a 

 more detailed description the second species is best omitted 

 from our lists. 



Processa canaliculata, Leach. 



Nika edulis, Bell, 1853, fig., p. 275. 



Processa canaliculata, Stebbing, 1905 {uhi syn.) 



Colour in life. — The carapace and abdomen are dull whitish 

 with faint reddish pigmentation. This pigmentation is very 

 pale on the carapace, but is more pronounced towards the 

 posterior margin of each abdominal somite and over the base 

 of each pleopod ; on the telson and uropods it is still more 

 evident. The eyes are black with reddish reflections. The 

 antennular and antennal flagella are reddish, the scale of the 

 latter being translucent. The two terminal joints of the 

 outer maxillipedes are bright red ; the remaining joints of this 

 limb and also the first pair of pereiopods are faintly dotted 

 with red ; the other four pairs are quite pale. The gastric and 

 cardiac regions are of a darkish red colour and show through 

 the semi-translucent carapace. 



Si-ze. — The largest specimen examined is a female bearing 

 eggs, 68 mm. in length. This individual was trawled in the 

 Irish Sea ; off the west coast the species does not seem to 

 attain to such a large size. Very small ovigerous examples 

 are found on both coasts; one of these measures only 28-mm. 



The variation exhibited by this species is far greater than 

 in any other Decapod known from British waters. Speci- 

 mens taken in the Irish Sea do not as a rule differ widely 



