DECAPOD CRUSTACEANS OF THE WEST INDIES 181 



armed, minutely denticulate on flexor margin; palm granulate with 

 low dorsal ridge in proximal half; fingers narrowly rounded, spoon- 

 tipped, movable finger with scattered small tubercles on extensor 

 surface. Walking legs flat, moderately broad, merus of third pereiopod 

 nearly two-fifths as wide as long, vnth sharp subdistal tooth on 

 extensor margin; dactyl about as long as extensor margin of propodus. 

 Denuded first pleopod of male terminating in posterior view in slightly 

 skewed subquadrate endpiece directly distolaterally (fig. 62y). A 

 medium-sized species, maximum carapace length in midline nearly 

 20 mm. 



Color in life. — Carapace of immature male pigmented in shades 

 of brown, tan, and cream. Submarginal band of cream extending 

 across carapace behind postfrontal lobes and continuing onto eye- 

 stalks; light band followed posteriorly by rectangular area of dark 

 brown; three pairs of elongate, sub triangular bands radiating from 

 rectangle ^\dth apices on rectangle : anterior pair extending horizontally 

 to lateral margin of carapace and bearing cream spot at level of cornea 

 of retracted eye, second extending posterolaterally to margin and 

 fusing posteriorly "with massive dark area in posterior half of carapace, 

 third pair extending posteriorly to cardiac region with narrow light 

 area separating them; one pair of white spots laterally between first 

 and second dark bands, a second pair in posterior portion of light 

 area separating second and third dark bands, and third pair in dark 

 area posterior to third bands; posterior portion of carapace with pair 

 of light areas posterolaterally and light spot on median line between 

 them; anterolateral spines cream and lateral border tan with dark 

 brown spots. 



Eyestalks brown with cream dorsal longitudinal stripe; cornea 

 black. Cheliped cream to tan basally; merus darker with purple 

 markings; carpus tan with irregular purple markings; propodus 

 purplish tan mth yellow- tipped finger; dactyl purplish at base and 

 yellow distally. Basal podomeres of remaining pereiopods cream and 

 tan \vith few brown marks; distal podomeres orange tan with brownish 

 markings, large spots or transverse bands, latter particularly noticeable 

 on propodus; dactyl orange tan with corneous tips. 



Material examined. — The Dominican collections contain a single 

 immature male (carapace length 10.0 mm). 



Ecological notes. — Our single specimen of Sesarma miersii was 

 collected from the low bank on the west side of the large mudflat just 

 south of the Indian River at Portsmouth (pi. 4a), It was crawling on 

 the base of a Pterocarpus buttress. Assuming that it was Sesarma 

 roberti, but fortunately making color notes, no attempt was made to 

 secure additional specimens at the time that it was collected. Recently, 

 other investigators on Dominica have attempted to secure additional 



