OCR Text |
Show 42 MR. E. J. MIERS ON CRUSTACEA FROM [Jan. 14, The colour is light yellowish brown, flecked with spots of darker brown, of which two are rather prominent and situated one on each branchial region. MYRA. The species of this genus, all of which occur in the seas of Eastern Asia, bear a very close resemblance to one another; and the form and tuberculation of the carapace and anterior legs not improbably alter considerably as the animal increases in age. On this account it is not without much hesitation that I regard the specimens described below as belonging to a distinct and undescribed form, as they are all of small size ; but they cannot, in the present state of our knowledge, be referred to any of the known species. MYRA DUHIA, sp. n. Carapace convex, rhomboid-oval, longer than broad, and covered with minute distant granules ; there is a faintly but distinctly marked longitudinal median raised line. The median spine or tubercle is but little longer than the lateral ones, conical and acute ; and a short distance in front of it, on the front of the intestinal region, is another very small but distinct tubercle. Front and hepatic regions as in Myra carinata. Anterior legs about twice as long as the body, slender; arm distinctly and hand finely granulated ; fingers straight and acute. Postabdomen of the male elongate-triangular, with the sides nearly straight; surface smooth and flat; all the joints except the last coalescent. Length 6| lines, breadth 5| lines. Three specimens, males, are in the collection, without definite locality. The nearest ally of this species is evidently the Myra carinata of Bell from the Philippines, from which it differs in the broader carapace with shorter median posterior spine. Moreover it differs from this and all the other species of the genus in the existence of the small tubercle in front of the posterior spine. There is, however, in the British-Museum collection a male individual from Hong- Kong, of much larger size, which may be identical with the Japanese species, in which the tubercle does not exist. From Myra fugax, affinis, elegans, and mamillaris it differs in the form of the tubercles of the posterior margin and postabdomen of the male. EHALIA RHOMROIDALIS, sp. n. Carapace rhomboidal, rather broader than long, uniformly and finely granulated; cardiac and intestinal regions convex but not tuherculated. Frontal margin straight. Antero-lateral margins straight and not interrupted, forming nearly a right angle with the postero-lateral margins, which are nearly straight; posterior margin, behind the intestinal prominence, obscurely bilobated. A moderately prominent longitudinal median ridge joins the front and the intestinal prominence with the elevated cardiac region ; and from the cardiac and intestinal regions transverse ridges reach to the posterolateral margins. There is no tubercle on the pterygostomian |