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Show 538 MR. E. J. MIERS ON [June 6, 5. On Crustaceans from the Mauritius.-Part II. By E D W A R D J. M I E R S , F.L.S., F.Z.S. [Received June 1, 1882.] (Plate XXXVI.) Of the interesting Crustaceans of which I submit descriptions as a sequel to m y former paper on Crustaceans received by the British Museum from M . V. de Robillard, the first to be mentioned, a Pali-nurus, was taken in a fishing-net at a depth of 40 fathoms. With it were sent, with other marine animals, a specimen of a species of JDromia (apparently D. vulgaris1) completely covered with a sponge of the genus Dysidea ; and also a specimen of Lysiosquilla maculata, one of the commonest and best-known of the Oriental Squillidae, of which, however, there were previously no specimens from the Mauritius in the British-Museum collection, and which is marked as "rare" by M. Robillard. The Crawfish, of which a detailed description follows, and which belongs to the restricted genus Palinurus of Gray2, I regard as specifically identical with a West-Indian form long since described and roughly figured by Parra3 under the designation " Camaron de lo alto," which M . H. Milne-Edwards4 has briefly described as Palinurus longimanus from a West-Indian type in the collection of the Paris Museum. M. Guerin-Meneville5 also mentions this species, but without adding any thing to our knowledge respecting it; and yet more recently Dr. Edward v. Martens6 has published a few remarks upon a male example obtained at Cuba by Dr. J. Guudlach. Thus the West-Indian habitat of P. longimanus is established bevond question. The original description of Parra, although of considerable length, is, as might be expected in so early a work, insufficient from a scientific point of view ; but as far as it goes it is applicable in almost every particular to the species from the Mauritius. Nevertheless, as 1 I have already, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (ser. 5) v. p. 370 (1880), remarked on the occurrence of this species in the Oriental region. 2 I may observe here that Dr. G. Pfeffer, in a memoir on the Palinuridce in the collection of the Hamburg Museum (Verhandl. des naturwissenschaftlichen Vereins von Hamburg-Altona, v. p. 30, 1881), has proposed for the subgenus Panulirus of Gray (ined. ?) and Heller (1865), which includes by far the greater number of known Crawfishes, and has been generally adopted, the new designation Senex. This name cannot be adopted, having been long ago preoccupied in the class Aves; and I will add that, iu m y opinion, it would be productive of much inconvenience were a generic name liable to alteration merely because (as in the present instance) it is composed of the transposed letters of another name ; to cite only one instance, it would then become necessary to name nearly all the older genera of Fish-lice (Cymothoidce). 3 Descripcion de di'ferentes Piezas de Historia natural, &c, p. 154, pl. Iv. fig. 1 (1787). l S 4 Histoire naturelle des Crustaces, ii. p. 294 (1837). 5 "Anim. ArticuleV' in R. de la Sagra's Hist, de File de Cuba, p. xcih (1857). 6 Archiv f. Naturgeschichte, xxxviii. p. 125 (1872). |
