IV. NOTES ON CRUSTACEA DECAPODA IN
THE INDIAN MUSEUM.
V. — HlPPOLYTIDAE.
By Stanley Kemp, B.A., Assistant Superintendent, Indimi
Museum.
(Plates I-VII.)
With the exception of a few more or less isolated records little
has hitherto been wiitten on the Hippolytidae occurring in Indian
waters. The family is well represented in the Indian Museum,
but there can be no doubt that many new and unrecorded forms
remain to be discovered.
On a recent visit to the coasts of S. India in the vicinity of
Rameswaram Island, made in company with Dr. J. R. Henderson
of the Madras Museum, several species hitherto unknown from
Indian coasts were obtained and there is httle doubt that collec-
tions from other localities would prove equally interesting. Hip-
polytidae seem, for the most part, to prefer shallow water and a
weedy bottom ; it was at any rate in such situations that all the
species found in S. India were obtained. Our collection was made
in February and at this season the majority of the females were
found bearing eggs.
The family Hippolytidae is one of somewhat unusual interest
on account of the great diversity of form found in the different
genera and of the different modes in which the secondary sexual
characters may find expression.
Several genera such as Leontocaris, Cryptocheles, Tozemna and
Gelastocaris exhibit structural modifications of the most bizarre
character ; this specialization is presumably correlated with some
unusual form of livelihood, but the reasons for the peculiar adap-
tations have not as yet been definitely ascertained.
In many of the genera no conspicuous secondary sexual
characters are developed, but in others they form a most notice-
able feature. In some, such as Latreutes and to a less marked
Extent in Saron, the sexes may be distinguished by the develop-
ment of the upper antennular flagellum, that of the male being
longer and stouter than that of the female. Young males of Saron
in other respects bear a close resemblance to females, but in large
individuals of the former sex the third maxillipedes and first
peraeopods ma^^ attain a monstrous development, being often
proportionately twice as long as those of the female. This condi-
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