678 PRO CEEDING S OF THE NA TIONAL M USE UM. r< »i* xx. 



PARANEPHROPS PLANIFRONS White. 



Paraneplirops planifrons White. Gray's Zoolog. Miscell., No. II, p. 79, 1842; 



Dieff'enbach's Travels in New Zealand, II, p. 267, 1843; List Crust. Brit. 



Mus., p. 72, 1847 (no description). 

 f Paraneplirops tenuicornis Dana, U. S. Explor. Exped., XIII, Crust., Pt. 1, p. 527, 



1852; Atlas, pi. xxxin, fig. 4, 1855. 

 Paraneplirops tenuicornis Heller, Eeise der Novara, Zoolog. Th., II, Pt. 3, 



Crust., p. 104, 1865. 

 Paraneplirops planifrons Miers, Zool. "Erebus and Terror," Crust., p. 4, pi. in, 



fig. 1, 1874; Cat. Stalk- and Sessile-eyed Crustacea of New Zealand, p. 72, 



1876; Aun. Mag. Nat. Hist., 4th ser., XVIII, p. 413, 1876; Trans, and Proc. 



New Zealand Inst., IX, p. 476, 1877. 

 Paraneplirops planifrons Huxley, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1878, p. 770. 

 Paraneplirops planifrons Chilton, Trans, and Proc. New Zealand Inst., XXI, 



pp. 242, 249, pi. x, figs. 1-3, 1888. 



Types in British Museum (White, Miers). 



Paraneplirops planifrons is a very puzzling species. The type local- 

 ity is the river Thames, North Island, New Zealand. In specimens 

 from Puriri Creek, a tributary of the Thames, the rostrum tapers off 

 into a long and sharp acumen, which overreaches the distal end of the 

 antennular peduncle. Each side of the rostrum is armed with three 

 teeth, which are produced into long spine-like points. In one of the 

 five specimens before me there are four spines on the right side, three 

 on the left; the lower side of the rostrum is furnished with one or two 

 spines. The antennal scale is long, and diminishes in width from the 

 basal third to the tip; it exceeds the rostrum in length. The postor- 

 bital ridge is interrupted between the two sharp spines with which it is 

 armed. A median ridge runs aloug the gastric area, reaching forward 

 as far as the anterior pair of postorbital spines, but not continued on 

 the rostrum. There are two or three sharp spines on each side of the 

 carapace, just behind the cervical groove, besides several more on the 

 hepatic and pterygostomian regions. The areola is very short and 

 broad — not much over one- third as long as the distance from the cervi- 

 cal groove to the tip of the rostrum. The abdominal pleurse are 

 bluntly angulated. The hand is long and narrow, its superior and 

 inferior margins nearly straight, parallel, and armed with a double 

 row of spines — those on the superior margin the longest. The inner 

 and outer faces of the hand are convex and sparsely armed with spines, 

 the largest of which are disposed in a median longitudinal row on each 

 face. 



Sx>ecimens from Karaka, Manukau Harbor (near Auckland), are alto- 

 gether similar to typical examples from the Thames. The largest of 

 these (an ovigerous female) measures 83 mm. from tip of rostrum to end 

 of telson. 



Individuals from localities south of the Thames basin, from the lake 

 called Eoto-Iti (North Island) southward to Cook Strait and beyond, 

 differ almost constantly from the typical form in having a shorter rostral 

 acumen, 



