ANOMOURA. 399 



thea, are taken from the Macroura, and associated in a common 

 section with Porcellana. In both these particulars, this author differs 

 from Edwards, by whom the tribe Anomoura was instituted. 



Among the characteristics in which the Anomoura diverge from 

 the Brachyura and graduate toward the Macroura, the position of the 

 vulvae is one of the most striking ; and in this respect Ranina aud 

 Dromia are unlike the Brachyura : and as this characteristic is also 

 sustained by others that bear a like impress of degradation, we think 

 it more correct to refer these genera to the Anomoura. Galathea, on 

 the other side, has strongly an Anomoural character, much like Por- 

 cellana, which it exhibits in its posterior pair of legs, short and in- 

 flexed beneath the carapax, and in the lateral suture of the carapax, 

 — a Brachyural and not a Macroural characteristic. Still, these 

 species, unlike all the Anomoura, have the abdomen complete in its 

 pairs of members, and in all other particulars it is mainly Macroural. 

 In iEglea, the posterior pair of legs and abdomen are as in Galathea, 

 except that the abdominal appendages in the male are obsolescent. 

 A lateral suture may be distinguished extending along by the lateral 

 margin of the carapax ; but there is another longitudinal suture, as in 

 Pagurus, and in the Thalassinidea among the Macroura. The inner 

 antennae are posterior to the eyes, a Macroural characteristic, and not 

 between them, as in Porcellana. The term Anomoural refers to the 

 anomalous character of the abdomen ; and when this part is not ano- 

 malous, it would seem plain that the species should be excluded from 

 the tribe. Yet the existence of such a name, does not decide upon 

 the true limits of the group so designated. After much deliberation, 

 and still much hesitation, we incline to arrange these genera with the 

 Anomoura. They are closely related to the Thalassinidea, and in 

 either arrangement they are the osculant genera between the Ma- 

 croura and the Anomoura. 



We also refer to the Anomoura, with some doubt as to its propriety, 

 the genera Bellia and Corystoides, which are Brachyural in most of 

 their characteristics. The absence of interantennary fossettes, and 

 the non-retractile eyes, are so decidedly Macroural traits, and so unlike 

 the Cancroids, which otherwise they resemble, that we naturally rank 

 them below any true Brachyura. They are inferior to the Corys- 

 toidea in these respects, and also differ from them strongly in the 

 small or obsolete outer antennae. 



The subdivisions of the Anomoura adopted are as follows : — 



