CRUSTACEA. 231 



tralia (ilf. du Boulay). It is retained as a distinct species by Koss- 

 mann, who unites, however, under the designation Th. prymna, 

 several of the species regarded as distinct by A. M.-Edwards (vide 

 ' Zool. Eeis. roth. Meer. ' i. p. 17, 1877). 



70. Thalamita sima, M.-Edw. 



Small specimens are in the first collection from Port Molle, ob- 

 tained, between tide-marks (No. 103) and at 14 fms. (No. 93) ; and 

 in the second collection, from Thursday Island, 3-4 fms. (Nos. 175, 

 177), 4-5 fms. (No. 165), and Port Darwin, obtained on the beach 

 (No. 176). 



In three very small specimens from Port Denison, Queensland, 

 4 fms. (No. Ill), two of which are females with ova, the median 

 lobes of the front are sinuated, and the front thus appears very ob- 

 scurely 6-lobed. This is probably a peculiarity due to the small size 

 of the specimens examined ; the breadth of the carapace of one of 

 the females is barely 4 lines (8^ millim.). 



Of this species there are specimens in the British-Museum collec- 

 tion obtained between Cumberland Island and Point Slade and off 

 Cape Capricorn {J,. MacgiUivray, H Ji.S. ' Rattlesnake ') ; also from 

 Moreton Bay and Port Jackson, and from Swan Eiver (J. B. Jukes) 

 and Shark Bay, W. Australia (F. M. Bayner, H.M.S. 'Herald'); 

 also from New Zealand {purchased), and from the Indian Ocean 

 {General HardwicJce), and Aku Sima, Japan ( Oapt. IT. O. St. John) ; 

 besides others without special indication of locality. A. 3Iilne- 

 Edwards records it from New Caledonia. The specimens from the 

 Indian Ocean have the chelipedes more distinctly tuberculated than 

 the other examples in the collection, but cannot, I think, on this 

 account be separated, even as a distinct variety. From the Thala- 

 mita ehaptali, noticed. below, T. sima is distinguished not only by the 

 much more acute lateral teeth of the carapace, the last of which is 

 rather more prominent than the rest, but also by the smoother 

 sternum and by the weU-developed spines of the palms of the 

 chelipedes. In T. ehaptali the last of the antero-lateral teeth is (if 

 any thing) smaller than the preceding tooth, and the palmar spines 

 are nearly obsolete *. 



* I may take this opportunity of noting that there ia now in the collection of 

 the British Museum a specimen from Ceylon' {E. W. H. Holdsworth) apparently 

 referable to this exceedingly rare Thalamita, originally described from the !Red 

 Sea, of which A. Milne-Edwards, when he published his Monograph of the 

 PortunidaB (Arch. Mus. H. N. x. p. 360, 1861), wrote : — " Oette espece parait 

 extrSmement rare, elle n'exiate dans aucun MusSe, Boit de Prance, soit de 

 Angleterre, soit de HoUande." 



This example is an adult male, and agrees very well with M.-Bdwards's 

 description and Savigny's figure of T. ehaptali, except as regards the chelipedes, 

 the arm of which ia strigose, and the wrist and palm and fingers Tery closely 

 and distinctly granulated; the sternum is also finely sculptured. As some 

 indications of granulations appear on the wrist of the left-hand ohelipede in 

 Savigny's figure, I do not venture to regard our apecimen as distinct. Should 

 future researchea, however, demonstrate it to be so, it may be designated 

 T. hold$worthi. 



