![Thumbnail: [Volume 59, 1928 page 739]](/journals/rsnz/images/rsnz_59/thumbnails/rsnz_59_04_0902_0739_ac_02.gif)
Leptomithrax longimanus Miers
Leptomithrax lonqimanus Miers, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 4, vol. 17, p. 220. 1876.
— Miers, Cat. Crust. N.Z., p. 8, Pl. 1, Fig. 3. 1876.
— Filhol, Mission de l'Ile Campbell, p. 364, Pl. 39, Fig. 4. 1885.
Filhol did not expressly criticise the diagnostic features emphasized by Miers, viz., that the species is “at once distinguished by the great length of the anterior legs, and by the absence of spines on the antero-lateral margins.” What Miers may have meant concerning the spines is obscure, and Filhol's account is more accurate, viz., that except for the absence of the small accessory spine on the post-ocular spine, the spines of the carapace occupy the same positions as in L. australis. The spines, in fact, are stout, though not as long or as sharp as in the latter species. As for the “great length of the anterior legs,” it is not known whether this applies to the female.
The pubescence mentioned by Miers is apparently transient, and the “small scattered granules” are more accurately described by Hutton (MS.) as “flattened tubercles.”
Our largest specimen, a male slightly exceeds Filhol's, the proportions of the various dimensions being the same as those quoted by him. They are as follows:—
| Length of carapace (including rostral spines) | 50 mm. |
| Breadth of carapace | 40 mm. |
| Length of rostrum | 7 mm. |
| Length of hand | 46 mm |
| Length of arm, measured from cephalothoracic margin | 97 mm. |
![Thumbnail: [Volume 59, 1928 page 740]](/journals/rsnz/images/rsnz_59/thumbnails/rsnz_59_04_0903_0740_ac_02.gif)
We have several small females from off Cape Maria. The dimensions of the largest, which bears no eggs, are as follows:—
| Length of carapace | 30 mm. |
| Breadth of carapace | 21 mm. |
| Length of arm | 33 mm. |
| Length of hand | 16 mm. |
| Length of first legs | 34 mm. |
The arm is therefore only as long as the first legs or the carapace, whereas in the adult male it is twice as long. This may be attributed to age rather than to sex, as shown by still smaller males in our collection; so that the adult female is still unknown. In our small specimens the eyes are prominent, rostral spines divergent, ambulatory legs with long and shorter hairs, including a row of hooked hairs along the upper margins; the whole exoskeleton covered with a fine pubescence, except the arms, which are smooth and slender, wrist scarcely granular, fingers thin, fixed finger with faint sign of excavation.
Postscript.—In writing the above, we overlooked Borradaile's description of Paramithrax (Leptomithrax) affinis; from a comparison of the texts, we consider it likely that our small specimens from Cape Maria may belong to Borradaile's species (see next species).
Locality.—N.Z. (Miers).
Sumner (Hutton).
Stewart Island, 30 fathoms (Filhol).
Puysegur Point, Stephens Island (T. B. Smith).
Dunedin (Austr. Mus., Sydney).
10 miles N.W. from Cape Maria; Little Barrier, 35 fathoms (C.C.).
Distribution.—Endemic.