﻿July, 1857.] ELLIOTT SOCIETY. 225 



JULY 15th, 1857. 



President L. R. Gibbes in the chair. 



The President read the following paper : 



Description of Ranilia muricata Milne Edwards. By Lewis R. 

 Gibbes. 



Plate 13. 



In the Histoire Naturelle des Crustace's, M. Edwards gave (torn, 

 ii. p. 195,) the characters of this genus and a description of the 

 only known species. His description was drawn from a single 

 specimen, and that an imperfect o^ie, having lost the terminal seg- 

 ments of the abdomen, and of the four last pairs of feet. Its 

 country was also unknown to him. 



In the third volume of the Proceedings of the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science, (meeting at Charleston, 

 March, 1850,) I announced that this animal inhabited the waters 

 of Key West, and the Atlantic shores of the United States. Hav- 

 ing had the opportunity of examining four or five specimens, two 

 of them perfect, with the exception of the terminal (multiarticu- 

 lale?) and, probably, short segment of the antennae, I am induced 

 to give the following description, including points omitted by M* 

 Edwards. A few other points, requiring examination, must be 

 considered at another time, as I am unwilling to mutilate the few 

 existing specimens for the sake of close inspection. 



RANILIA. 



General form much resembling that of Banina, but the carapax 

 is more convex in transverse section, and its anterior border is not 

 straight as in jRanina, but is much curved. The anterior border 

 is armed with distant spines, of which the middle one forms the 

 rostrum, and is separated from each of the two adjacent ones by 

 a deep incurvation of the edge of the carapax. The orbits are 

 directed downwards and slightly backwards, so as to form an 

 inverted V with rather wide spreading branches. Eyes with 

 peduncles nearly half the length of the anterior border of the 

 carapax, folding downwards in the orbits, the articulation of the 

 last segment appearing in the space between the rostrum and the 



