is really identical with Epigrapsus \ all the principal characters: the shape of the orbits and 

 the maxillipeds are wholly the same, and even the minutely and transversely-striated infra- 

 orbital crest, that is as long as the breadth of the orbit, agrees in Epigrapsus and Grapsodes ^) ; 

 in both genera the pterygostomial regions are hirsute in the same way and between the bases 

 of the second and third pair of walking legs there is a tuft of hairs, bordering an opening 

 towards the branchial cavity, as in Ocypoda and Gcograpsiis. 

 Key to the species : 



Lateral margins of carapace dentate. Walking legs hirsute E. wt^/rt/z^.s- (Heller) 



Lateral margins of carapace entire or nearly so. Walking legs glabrous, 



only the dact}li hirsute E. polihts Heller 



I . Epigrapsus politus Heller. 



Literature: Alcock, Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, v. 69, prt 2, 1900, p. 443. 

 Stat. 64. Tanah Djampeah, Floras Sea. i 9- 



Heller's figure is not quite exact as regards the outer orbital angle, which is represented 

 acute and rather prominent, and the proportions of the carapace are inexact, for, as Miers -) 

 remarks, the carapace is broader anteriorly and narrower behind. De Man ■') observed, that 

 usually one epibranchial tooth, though very obscure, is found behind each external orbital 

 angle, and that in the 9 even a second epibranchial tooth may occur, in such a way that the 

 length of the preceding tooth is somewhat longer than that of the external orbital angle. In 

 my specimen the lateral margins present only one single notch. The carapace is flattened in 

 a transverse sense and the regions are not indicated, but near the margins and on the sloping 

 branchial regions there are a number of obliquely-elongated, somewhat hairy tubercles. The 

 inner angle of the wrist is more pronounced- in the 9 than in the cf ; in the latter sex the 

 chelipeds should be markedly unequal, according to Alcock, but de Man, who examined 

 20 cT, says that they are usually equal in size. The walking legs are smooth and glabrous 

 or nearly so ; the dactyli are hirsute, especially in the case of the last two pairs, so that the 

 spinules are largely hidden beneath the hairs, these dactyli are long, subquadrate or pentagonal 

 in transverse section, and wholly straight, only the horny tip being faintly curved. 



The general shape of this species, the carapace of which is of a uniform reddish-yellow 

 colour, much resembles Cyclograpsus and indeed it has been generally referred to the Grapsidae. 

 From Cyclograpsus it is at once distinguished by the form of the maxillipeds, that do not 

 present the diagonally-directed hairy line across the merus, and by the lateral margins of the 

 carapace disappearing at a few distance behind the external orbital angles and not being 

 keeled. In the latter feature it agrees with one species of Geograpsus {G. grayi H. Milne- 

 Edwards), but the oblique branchial striae, so characteristic of the Grapsinae, are entirely 

 wanting and the merus of the external maxillipeds is of a more rounded shape. Alcock was 

 the first to place Epigrapsus in its proper place. 



1) MiERS (Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1877, p. 160) already alluded to the close affinity of both genera. 



2) Rep. "Challenger", Brachyura, 1886, p. 266. 



3) Zool. Jahrb., Syst., Bd 9, 1 895, p. 79. 



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