III. A NEW' \'ARIETY OF FRESHWATER 

 CRAB FROM TRAVANCORE. 



By J. R. Henderson, M.B., CM., F.L.S., Superintendent, 

 Madras Government Museum. 



In a small collection of crabs sent for identification b}^ the 

 Director of the Trivandrum Museum were two specimens on which 

 the following remarks are based. They appear to constitute a new 

 variety of the species from a stream in the Cochin State Forests, 

 described as Paratelphusa malaharica in the Records of the Indian 

 Museum, vol. vii, part ii, May 1912. 



Paratelphusa (Liotelphusa) malabaricat Henderson, 

 var. travancorica, nov. 



Habitat.— Vonm.M^\, Travancore, 2500 ft., 30-xii-ir. Two speci- 

 mens ( & and 9 ) and a third in a bad state of preservation. 



These specimens agree with P. malabarica in general appear- 

 ance and size, but differ in the following respects. The epigastric 

 and postorbital crests of the carapace are more prominent and 

 form a continuous hue in the new variety. The epigastric crests 

 are represented, as in P. malabarica, by patches on either side of 

 the somewhat deep mesogastric furrow, but in the variety iravan- 

 corica they are distinctly elevated, and bounded posteriorly by a 

 Hue representing the crest proper, which is higher than the surface 

 in front of it. This surface shows some minute almost linear 

 elevations. The frontal surface is more convex than in P. mala- 

 barica, and its anterior margin is no longer straight, but slightly 

 bilobed. A broad shallow excavation, not seen in P. malabarica, 

 occurs on either side of the carapace, leading up towards the 

 lateral epibranchial tooth, but it is not continuous with the 

 crescentic cervical groove. This excavation no doubt represents 

 a forward extension of the cervical groove, and it at any rate 

 occurs in the position which the latter would have occupied had it 

 been definitely present. The sixth segment of the male abdomen 

 has the proximal end distinctly wider than the distal, and the 

 length of the segment is only slightly greater than its width; 

 in P. malabarica the two ends are of subequal width. The ischium 

 of the external maxillipedes has a distinct, though not sharply cut, 

 longitudinal line on the outer surface. In this last character the 

 new variety resembles P. austrina, Alcock, but the latter species 

 has the cervical groove hardly visible, the mesogastric furrow is 

 indistinct, the epigastric and postorbital crests are only just 



