Zoology.^ NATURAL HISTORY OF VICTORIA. [Crustacea, 



Plates 179 and 180. 



PSEUDOCARCINUS GIGAS (Lam. sp.). 



The Great Red King-Crab. 



[Genus PSEUDOCARCINUS (Milne-Edwards). (Sub-kingdom Articulata. Class 

 Crustacea. Section Podophthalmata. Order Decapoda. Tribe Bracliyura. Family CanceridEe.) 



Oen. Char. — Carapace gently arched in front half, narrowed and truncated behind ; wider 

 than long, moderately depressed, the various regions and subregions elevated and embossed ; 

 front nearly horizontal, lateral anterior margins moderately curved, armed with projections or 

 teeth ; posterior lateral margins straight, converging ; hind margin narrow, straight ; basal 

 joint of the external antennse very small ; second joint scarcely reaching the front ; third joint 

 lodged in the orbital hiatus, but not filling it, so that the antennary fossa is not completely 

 separated from the orbit ; prelabial space not channelled ; first pair of legs, especially in the 

 male, forming very large pincers, the fingers of which are equally rounded and obtuse to the 

 tip, unequal, and armed with very large, bluntly rounded tubercles, fewer and of greater size on 

 the right claw,* which greatly exceeds the left in size. Hinder feet moderately long, simply 

 pointed ; abdomen of the male and female divided into seven distinct segments. Indian Ocean.] 



Description. — Carapace slightly convex, anterior half tumid, posterior halt 

 more flattened, and bent downwards at an angle of about 145° from the anterior 

 half ; the protogastric, epibranchial, and metagastric regions tumid and bounded by 

 broad deep furrows ; the cardiac region is bounded by two furrows deeper and 

 more angular than the rest, extending nearly to the hind margin ; upper surface 

 smooth as far as posterior margin of epibranchial and metagastric regions, behind 

 which the surfaces of the cardiac and mesobranchial and metabranchial regions are 

 rough with scattered conical tubercles of very irregular size. Fiont between the 

 orbits forming four projecting lobes, between which the middle sinus is smaller than 

 the other two ; posterior superior external margin of each orbit incised by two deep 

 parallel fissures ; fir.st joint of outer antennae very small ; second joint reaching 

 lower edge of orbit ; fourth, half the length of third joint and reaching edge of 

 front ; flagellum little larger than anterior lateral portion of the carapace, with 

 about eleven irregular, conical tubercles and divided into four lobes by small 

 indentations on upper surface, but long narrow slits below, each lobe with two 

 or three of the spines. Anterior legs or chelee very large, the right much larger 

 than the leftf; movable finger (dactylopodite) rounded, moderately compressed, 

 abruptly incurved at the obtuse tip ; a little shorter than the fixed finger, with 

 three elongate, large, slightly compressed teeth on the basal half of the inner 

 margin, the anterior smallest, posterior largest, a very slight angular projection at 

 about one-fourth the length from the tip ; fixed finger slightly longer than the 

 movable one, a little broader and more compressed, but similarly abruptly incurved 

 at the blunt apex ; inner margin with three very large, rounded tubercles on basal 

 half, the middle one largest, and a slight compressed one about one-third from the 

 tip ; hand (propodite) very broad, rounded externally, moderately convex on inner 

 and outer sides; carpus (carpopodite) with two strong spines on upper inner margin, 

 which has also three or four slight blunt tubercles near its base ; next joint (mero- 

 podite) trigonal, with the upper, sharp, angular margin with an irregular row of 

 nine or ten blunt tubercles ; four posterior pairs of legs, with the terminal joints 



• Reversed in our plate. t Reversed in the lithographing of our plate. 



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