Biological results of the snellius expedition : XXVI. The Portunidae (Decapoda - Brachyura) of the snellius expedition (Part II)

INTRODUCTION In 1940 Leene published Part I of the Snellius portunids, with the stated intention of using the remaining material to produce monographs of the genera Thalamita and Neptunus (now Portunus). These monographs did not eventuate and at the invitation of Dr. L. B. Holthuis the material was made available for study by the author at the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie in Leiden. The original intention was to report upon the collections of the Snellius expedition and upon the accrued specimens from the Indo-West Pacific area in the Leiden Museum which belonged to described species. It was then intended to publish separately upon the undescribed species in these and other collections. Instead these undescribed species are included in the present work. The additional species are basically from the collections of the United States National Museum, Smithsonian Institution, but specimens have also been loaned from the Zoologisk Museum, Copenhagen, the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, the Australian Museum, Sydney, and the Queensland Museum, Brisbane. I am deeply grateful to the Directors of these museums and to their carcinologists for the loan of this material. Particular thanks are due to Mme. Daniele Guinot of Paris for forwarding the male first pleopod from the damaged holotype of Portunus granulatus (H. Milne Edwards). I owe especial gratitude to the Leiden Museum, and particularly to Dr. L. B. Holthuis, for friendly and effective collaboration during my visit, and for the loan of critical specimens for further study in Brisbane. Thanks are also due to the University of Queensland, whose generous provision of study leave made the visit possible.