210 Bulletin Vanderbilt Marine Museum, Vol. VII 



Subtribe: Oxystomata 



Family: CALAPPIDAE 



Genus: CALAPPA Fabricius 



Calappa philargius (Linne) 



Plates 72 and 73 



Type : Linne's type was from Asia and was originally depos- 

 ited in the museum Ludovicse Ulricae, No. 462. 



Distribution : Described in 1758 by Linne as "from Asia," 

 there are today less than twenty reliable records for this species. 

 These establish its distribution from the Red Sea eastward 

 through the Indian Ocean archipelagoes and northward to Japan 

 and eastward in the tropical central Pacific to Samoa. These 

 records include: Asia and seas of Asia (Linne, Herbst, Fabri- 

 cius, Bosc, Latreille, H. Milne Edwards and others) ; Amboina 

 (de Man) ; north Celebes (Thallwitz) ; Java (Herklots) ; Japan 

 (de Haan) ; Ternate and Lagundi Bay (Nobili) ; Ruck Island 

 and Hondo (Parisi) ; "Siboga" station 313, Dangar Besar, 33 

 meters (Ihle) Mergui, the Andamans, Ceylon and the Persian 

 Gulf (Alcock, Calcutta coll.). The "Ara" records add a new 

 locality for this species, Singapore. 



Material examined: One male, collected at Singapore, Ma- 

 lay Straits, February, 1929, by the "Ara" World Cruise. 



Colour : Unrecorded. 



Technical description: The carapace is decidedly convex 

 dorsad, with the anterior margin widely convex, beaded, the 

 clypeiform expansions prominent, nearly as wide transversely as 

 long on the oblique antero-posterior border, with the margins 

 cut into about six large, laciniate teeth, the median or apical pair 

 being unequal, marginally beaded and conspicuously longer than 

 either the posterior two, or anterior two. The posterior margin 

 has a strong, triangular, median tooth or spine, and a pair of 

 submedian, subequal teeth, one on either side, defining the limits 

 of the posterior margin. The dorsal surface is marked by the 

 deep, paired, longitudinal, cardio-gastric sulci ; otherwise, the 

 surface is comparatively smooth except for a series of twenty to 

 thirty low, rounded granules anteriorly, mostly in the postorbital 

 and mesogastric areas, and on either side of this, in the hepatic- 

 mesobranchial areas, are about six, shallow, unequal, oblique 



