Locality. Cape Point, by D. R. N.E. E. 40 miles; depth, 720 to 800 fathoms; bottom, green mud. STOMATOPODA. FAMILY SQUILLIDE. GEN. SQUILLA, Fabricius. 1793. Squilla, Fabricius, Ent. Syst., vol. ii., p. 511. SQUILLA NEPA, Latreille. 1825. Squilla nepa, Latreille, Encycl. Méth. Hist. Nat., x., p. 471. 1894. Squilla nepa, Bigelow, Proc. U.S. Mus., vol. xvii., pp. 511, 535, fig. 21. 1903. Squilla nepa, Nobili, Boll. Mus. Zool. Torino, vol. xviii., N. 452, p. 23, and N. 455, p. 38. A discussion of the synonymy is supplied in Dr. Bigelow's treatise. The question is rather complicated, for Latreille, by giving a reference to Herbst's figure of Mantis digitalis (Naturg. Krabben und Krebse, pl. 33, fig. 1), appears to identify his species with that represented by Herbst. The latter authority, however, does not claim a new species. He adopts the preoccupied Mantis as a substitute for Squilla, and then very sensibly remarks, "As I have given the generic name Mantis to this whole family, I have not been able to give that name to this single species. He thought it was out of the question to call a species Mantis mantis, and therefore in place of Squilla mantis, Auctorum, wrote Mantis digitalis. It is fairly certain that he confused a new species with the old one, but it cannot be positively affirmed that his figure represents Latreille's Squilla nepa. Dr. Bigelow points out that Latreille's original description covers two distinct forms, already carefully distinguished by Berthold in 1845, as respectively S. nepa, Latreille, and S. affinis. In regard to these he says, "As Berthold was the first to separate these species, we should undoubtedly follow his nomenclature, regarding the small-eyed form as S. nepa, Latreille, and giving his name S. affinis to the other. Berthold's description of the latter is very complete, is accompanied by measurements and figures, and was published years before de Haan's. I cannot see that de Haan had any warrant for replacing Berthold's name for this species by one of his own, and the latter should be dropped." As against this last conclusion, however, it has to be considered that, though de Haan's description of his Squilla oratoria was not published till 1849, the named drawing of it (pl. 51, fig. 2) in the Atlas of the Crustacea Japonica antedates Berthold's paper. While giving the reference to Berthold's S. affinis as a synonym of S. oratoria, de Haan, the Dutch writer clearly makes this claim, when he says, "the name of the species on the long since published plate holds good." Certainly the distinguishing marks of S. affinis, so far as they are explained by Berthold and accepted by Dr. Bigelow, seem to be made sufficiently clear in de Haan's figure of S. oratoria. The principal points are that this species has large triangular eyes, with corneal axis oblique and at least as long as the peduncular axis, the median carina of the carapace not bifurcated for more than onefourth of its length, and the finger of the raptorial claw with outer margin little or not at all sinuate. Dr. Nobili (loc. cit. 1903) describes a form from Nias and Singapore under the name Squilla affinis, Berthold, var. intermedia. Squilla nepa, as described by Dr. Bigelow, has very small eyes, the corneal axis at right angles to the peduncular and about threefourths its length, the median carina of the carapace bifurcate for nearly or more than half its length, and the finger of the raptorial claw deeply sinuate on its outer margin. The specimen sent me from the Durban Museum agrees with these and other characters given by the same author. The first three exposed thoracic segments are variously bilobed at the sides. The distal border of the telson has between the six marginal spines on each half three submedian, ten intermediate, and one lateral denticle. Length of specimen, from front of rostrum to a point level with apex of hindmost telsonic spines, 145 mm. A second specimen, dried, is 155 mm. long, with intermediate spines 8 and 9 in number. Locality. Durban. ISOPODA GENUINA. TRIBE FLABELLIFERA. FAMILY EURYDICIDE. 1880. Cirolanida, Harger, Rep. U.S. Fish. Comm. for 1878, p. 304. 1890. Cirolanidæ, Hansen, Vid. Selsk. Skr., Ser. 6, vol. iii., p. 275. 1905. Eurydicida, Stebbing, in Herdman's Rep. Ceylon Pearl Fisheries, pt. iv., Isopoda, p. 10. GEN. CONILORPHEUS, Stebbing. 1905. Conilorpheus, Stebbing, in Herdman's Rep. Ceylon Pearl Fisheries, pt. iv., Isopoda, pp. 11, 13. For the reception of a second species the character of the genus must be slightly modified. In the type species, C. herdmani, the inner plate of the first maxillæ carries four plumose setæ. The form about to be described, however, has only three such setæ in accord with the more general custom of the family. Here also the process of the peduncle of the uropods is not exceptionally elongate. In the Isopoda of the Pearl Fisheries Report a synoptic table of the Eurydicidæ distinguishes the genus Hansenolana, with head and trunk broad, from Conilera and Conilorpheus, with head and trunk narrow. But for the last genus the distinction must now be limited to the narrowness of the head, since the trunk of the new Conilorpheus is of considerable breadth. CONILORPHEUS SCUTIFRONS, n. sp. The single specimen was difficult to figure and dissect on account of its condition. The front part as far as the fourth peræon segment was tolerably firm, but in preparation for sloughing, as the new mouth-organs could be seen within the old. The after-part of the specimen, on the contrary, was soft and papyraceous, evidently the result of recent exuviation. The species is at once distinguished from C. herdmani by the width of the frontal plate, the broad trunk, the tuberculate ornamentation of peræon and pleon, and the narrower apex of the telsonic segment. The head is less than half the width of the peræon, the rostral point obtuse, with the frontal lamina extending from below much in advance of it. The anterior margin of the plate is divided into three lobes, of which the middle one is the most advanced, the sides each with a small notch contributing to form a square escutcheon on a curved base narrowly attached to the epistome. The first segment of the person is large, nearly encasing the head; its hinder angles are rounded. The next three segments are short, transversely marked with conspicuous lines; their side-plates are squarish. The fifth, sixth, and seventh segments are large, with more elongated side-plates, and each having a submarginal row of tubercles or denticles. Each of these little processes is furnished with a setule, to which is probably due the sharpened appearance suggestive of a denticle, although the same object more highly magnified is quite obtuse. The third and fourth segments of the pleon, and the fifth, which is overlapped by the fourth, are similarly ornamented. The telsonic segment has some fourteen tubercles symmetrically arranged, six in a triangular group near the base, and the rest in pairs. Its sides are strongly convex till near the depressed terminal portion, which is narrow, fringed with plumose setæ, and at the rounded apex carries six spines. The eyes are oval, not very large, as wide apart as the dimensions of the head permit. The antennæ are short. In the first pair the second joint is stout, but only a little longer than the first or the narrow third; the tapering flagellum is eight-jointed, not quite so long as the peduncle. In the second pair the first three joints are short, the fourth stouter than the fifth but slightly shorter, the flagellum subequal in length to the peduncle, thirteen-jointed. The cutting edge in the mandibles has slender teeth; there is a spine-row of four slender curved spines; the molar-plate is small, fringed with only about ten teeth. The smooth first joint of the palp is about as long as the curved and spinose third joint. The inner plate of the first maxillæ carries three setæ, the outer plate eleven spines, some of which are a little denticulate. The inner plate of the second maxillæ has several seta-like spines; the middle and outer plates have each four or five, one maxilla having the smaller number, the other the larger, on both plates. The maxillipeds have the second joint considerably longer than broad, not including the hook-bearing plate, which carries also three setæ. The large fifth joint is fringed with five setæ on the outer margin of one maxilliped, with only four in its companion. The first gnathopod is robust, with four stout spines on the hind margin of the fourth joint, fifth joint triangular, sixth very convex in front, the finger stout, with a dark-coloured blunt nail, narrower than the trunk, of which the hind margin forms a squared tubercle just in advance of the nail. The second gnathopod and first peræopod are successively smaller, and differ from the first gnathopod by having the fifth joint more overlapped by the fourth, more squared, the sixth joint less widened, and the peculiarities of the finger less demonstrative. The following pairs of peræopods are of more slender structure, successively longer, with several slender spines, especially on the apices of the fourth and fifth joints. In all the finger has a small process with intervening setule in advance of the nail. As in the type species, so here, the first pleopod has the inner plate much narrower than the outer, and the second pleopod has the masculine appendix attached just above the middle of the inner margin of the inner ramus. It descends a little below the ramus, and here has the apex not acute, but rounded. The outer ramus of the uropod is fringed with setæ and has five spines on each margin. It is shorter than the inner ramus and only about half as broad. The inner ramus is fringed with about a dozen spines and numerous plumose setæ. Length, about 7 mm. Locality. Between Bird Island and mainland, in 10-16 fathoms. The specific name alludes to the escutcheon-shaped frontal lamina. FAMILY SPHEROMIDÆ. 1902. Sphæromida, Stebbing, S.A. Crust., pt. 2, p. 64. 1904. Sphæromida, Stebbing, Gardiner's Fauna of Maldive and Lacc. Arch., vol. ii., pt. 3, p. 710. 1905. Sphæromida, Stebbing, Herdman's Rep. Ceylon Pearl Fisheries, pt. iv., Isopoda, p. 29. 1905. Sphæromida, H. Richardson, Bulletin U.S. Nat. Mus., No. 54, p. 270. 1905. Sphæromide (part), H. J. Hansen, Quart. J. Microsc. Sci., vol. xlix., pt. 1, p. 69. 1906. Sphæromide, Nobili, Bull. Mus. d'Hist. Nat., No. 5, p. 268. The present occasion is not appropriate for giving a full bibliography of recent contributions to this family. Dr. Hansen has made it the subject of a highly important revision, dividing it in the larger sense into three sub-families-Limnoriinæ, Sphærominæ, Plakarthriinæ. In the second of these, with which we are here concerned, he distinguishes three groups-Sph. hemibranchiatæ, eubranchiatæ, and platybranchiatæ. It is to the purpose here to notice that in the first group Hansen accepts Sphæroma terebrans. Bate, Exosphæroma gigas (Leach), E. lanceolatum (White), and possibly E. scabriculum (Heller), but he regards my E. validum, and E. setulosum as respectively the young male and the female of a species of Cymodoce, to which genus he likewise refers my E. amplifrons. Parasphæroma prominens, Stebbing, is placed by Hansen in the third group. With regard to Heller's species Hansen says: "In a species from Simon's Bay, at Cape, closely allied to or identical with Sphæroma scabriculum (Hell.), the end of abdomen in the female is as in Exo |