1872.] WOODWARD EOCENE CRUSTACEA. 29 



Edwards's tribe Catometopes), save the undoubted Eastern forms 

 figured and described by M. Desmarest so long ago as 1822, 

 belonging to the genera Grapsus, Gonoplax *, Gelasimus, and 

 Gecarcinus. 



The occurrence of these forms in our Eocene deposits tends to con- 

 firm (if confirmation were necessary) the conclusions already arrived 

 at by Sir Charles Lyell and other eminent geologists (on the evidence 

 of the land animals, marine shells, fossil fruits, and other organisms 

 found in these deposits) — -namely, that they attest the existence of a 

 warmer climate than that which we enjoy in the same latitude at 

 the present day. 



There is moreover throughout these Eocene deposits, frequent 

 evidence of the proximity of land, indicating that they were laid down 

 in an estuary or near the shore. 



LlTORICOLA GLABRA, H. Woodw. PI. II. fig. 1. 



Of the four specimens representing this genus I have been able, 

 after careful study, to form two species, the larger of which I pro- 

 pose to name Litoricola glabra. 



The carapace of this crustacean is remarkably smooth ; and it re- 

 quires considerable patience and lengthened examination (with 

 oblique light) to make out the regions on its surface. The broadest 

 measurement is at the angles formed by the epibranchial spines, 

 where the carapace is 15 lines broad ; the anterior border measures 11 

 lines, and the posterior 6 lines ; the length of the carapace is 11 lines. 

 The hepatic margin is entire, being only marked by a single spine 

 at each lateral angle, and one at each anterior angle, which is 

 separated only by a notch from the outer orbital spine ; the orbital 

 border is straight, and measures 2 lines in length ; the frontal or 

 rostral border measures 3 lines in breadth ; is plain and bent down, 

 so as to form almost an obtuse angle with the rest of the carapace ; 

 the eyes appear to have been provided with rather long eye-stalks as 

 in Macropihalmus and other genera of land-dwelling shore- crabs. 



A somewhat sinuous line marks out the epicardiac and metacardiac 

 lobes, the epibranchial, mesobranchial, and metabranchial being also 

 indicated by three nearly equidistant divergent lines ; the hepatic 

 region is small : the gastric region forms the most tumid portion of 

 the carapace ; a slight depression passes from it anteriorly, so as 

 to form a shallow groove down the centre of the frontal border 

 or rostrum. 



First pair of Limbs. — The arm is small and slender, the forearm 

 or wrist short, slightly angular and armed with three minute spines 

 at its distal edge ; the right hand is about one third larger than the 

 left ; but in imparichelate forms the hands are not constantly 

 larger on one side. 



The four succeeding pairs of limbs are long and flattened, and agree 

 closely with the typical running-forms among living crabs. The 

 terminal joints are long, slender, and pointed. 



The first specimens from this locality (described by me in 1870) 

 * The Gonoplax of Desmarest is really a Macrophthahnus. 



