ON A COLLECTION OF CRUSTACEA FROM THE 

 PORT CURTIS DISTRICT, QUEENSLAND. 



By F. E. Grant, F.L.S., and Allan R. McCulloch, Australian 



Museum. 



(Plates i.-iv.). 



The collection of Decapod Crustacea forming the subject of 

 this paper was made in 1904, in Port Curtis, Queensland, and on 

 and in the vicinity of Mast Head Island, situate some 30 miles 

 from the entrance to that Harbour, by a party of naturalists 

 which included the authors, under the leadership of Mr. C. 

 Hedley, F.L.S. 



From the widely different nature of the two localities the 

 specimens fall naturally into two groups — those from the coral 

 reefs of Mast Head Island offering a striking contrast to the 

 estuarine forms from Port Curtis. 



The waters of that Harbour are considerably affected by the 

 amount of sediment washed down by the Boyne River, Calliope 

 Creek, and other streams from the neighbouring ranges. It is in 

 many parts on the landward side fringed by extensive flats clothed 

 in part with mangroves. These were found to be rich collecting 

 grounds — the mud being riddled with the burrows of Uca, Meto- 

 pograpsus, Sesarma, Axius, and other estuarine species. Of 

 these the first mentioned were in the greatest numbers and w r ere 

 the most striking — each with its brightly coloured carapace 

 standing in the mouth of its burrow at low tide and incessantly 

 waving its large and unwieldly hand as though beckoning. The 

 amount of life supported by these unpromising mud flats is most 

 surprising, and they would well repay more attention and much 

 more careful search than has yet been given them. 



