Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Commanded By the Late Captain Owen Stanley - Volume 2 by John MacGillivray (the dot read aloud TXT) 📖

a broad ridge on the inside, the edge of it rough with small papillae; the upper edge of hand rough with small papillae; the claws lap over each other at the tips, and are irregularly toothed on the inside; the fixed claw of the right hand bent at the base, so as to leave a considerable space when the other is closed upon it; upper part of arm, hand, and movable claw pretty thickly spotted with red, epistome orbits and greater part of the upper surface of carapace spotted with red, sides and hind part of carapace white; upper edge of the orbit covered with small papillae; a tolerably prominent ridge extends across the carapace before the middle. Four hind pairs of legs long, slender, compressed, the upper edges of the second and third pairs fringed with hairs, as well as the lower edge of the two terminal joints, the claws long, thin, and somewhat bent.

Habitat: Port Curtis. Shoal water, mudbanks.

This fine Crustacean is allied to Gonoplax and Curtonotus; and being one of the most prominent species sent home by Mr. Macgillivray, is selected for description here; the figure is of the size of nature.

Porcellanella triloba. Tab. 5 fig. 2.

Carapace somewhat flattened, the front produced into three large teeth or lobes; the intermediate the widest and most prominent; the sides of the outer lobes rounded before the eye; carapace longer than wide, widest a little behind the insertion of the antennae, the upper surface smooth, polished, with some transverse scratched lines, which are slight and irregular, they are most observable in front and on the sides, behind it is somewhat notched in the middle. External antennae long, longer than twice the breadth of the carapace, inserted in a sinus behind the eye, the basal portion formed of three joints, the first projecting beyond the sides of the carapace, the second wider and longer than the first, third short and thick at the end; the terminal part of antennae long, thread-like, and formed of very numerous articulations; the eyes large, and with a short pedicel. Anterior legs long and smooth, the pincers overlapping each other at the end, their inner edge rough, scarcely toothed; from before the base of the inside of the movable claw a thickish line of hairs extends about halfway down the hands, which bulge, and are rounded on the inside, but on the outside are straightish or slightly waved, and rather sharply keeled; the second, third, and fourth pairs of legs are somewhat compressed, and terminate in claws with four longish hooks on the inside; posterior pair of legs folded over the back, narrow, with the second joint somewhat bent upwards.

This curious species was dredged by Mr. Macgillivray off Cape Capricorn, in latitude 23 degrees 25 minutes South longitude 151 degrees 12 minutes East in 15 fathoms, the bottom being muddy sand and shells. It is allied to the species of the second section of the genus Porcellana, as detailed by Professor Milne Edwards in the second volume of the Histoire Naturelle des Crustaces, but has characters sufficient to constitute a new subgenus, to which may be applied the name Porcellanella. The figure represents it of twice its natural size.

P.S. The figures have been carefully drawn from the originals by Mr. William Wing, so well known as a Zoological Draughtsman, and will at once explain my imperfect descriptions.

THE END.


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Publication Date: 05-21-2008

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