VOL. XIX, PP. 91-92 JUNE 4, 1906 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



DESCRIPTION OF A NEW CRAB FROM DOMINICA, 

 WEST INDIES. 



BY MARY J. RATH BUN. 



By permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 



Among a number of crustaceans sent to the United States 

 National Museum by Mr. A. Hyatt Verrill, for determination, 

 there is a new species of Catometopa, as follows : 



Pseudorhombila octodentata pp. nov. 



Type. Male, dried. Dominica. A. Hyatt Verrill, collector. Cat. No. 

 32,690, U. S. National Museum. 



Characters. Carapace very convex fore and aft, regions indistinctly 

 denned, surface closely set with flattened granules. Front subtruncate, a 

 V-shaped median notch, a rounded lobe at outer angle. Antero-lateral 

 teeth four (orbital angle excluded) ; the first small, separated from the orbit 

 by a long straight interval ; second tooth widest, third and fourth most 

 acute, the third the larger, the fourth the most projecting. 



Left cheliped missing; right one strong, covered with fine reticulated 

 granulation ; merus projecting little beyond the body, a strong subtermi- 

 nal tooth above ; carpus subquadrate, with a conspicuous tooth at inner 

 angle, and the outermost portion tuberculate; palm nearly twice as long as 

 high, widening distally; dactylus as long as palm; both fingers strongly 

 deflexed, not gaping, tips curved and overlapping. 



Ambulatory legs long and narrow ; meral joints granulate above and be 

 low, carpal joints above ; some small superior spines on the merus. Dactyli 

 with two fringes of long hair. 



The second segment of the abdomen leaves exposed a large piece of the 

 sternum on either side ; third to fifth segments fused. 



Measurements. Length, 33.3 ; width, 46.1 ; fron to-orbital width, 24.7 ; 

 width of front, 12.9 ; length of propodus of right cheliped, 39 ; length of 

 merus of third ambulatory leg, 26.5 mm. 



Remarks. This species is very like P. quadridentata (Latreille) Milne 

 Edwards,* a cotype of which is in the United States National Museum, but 

 the latter has a more uneven carapace, fewer antero-lateral teeth in the 

 male, and a longer postero-lateral margin. 



* Hist. Nat. Crust., II, 59, 1837. 



20 PROC. BIOL. Soc. WASH., VOL. XIX, 1906. 



1907 



