( 1^ ) 



are slightly the longer, are about as long as the body without the telson ; 

 both pairs, when extended, reach beyond the ist pair. 



The 4th pair of legs are as long as the carapace : their joints, though 

 compressed, are stout, and their dactylus is a short stout claw, which forms 

 with the produced angle of the setose propodite a subchela. 



The 5th pair of legs are shorter than the carapace ; they resemble the 4th 

 pair in having a setose propodite and a very short clav>?-like dactylus, which, 

 however, folds against the distal end of the propodite to form an imperfect 

 subchela. 



In the male the 2nd pair of abdominal appendages are two-thirds the 

 length of the carapace ; they are strongly calcified, and their terminal joint 

 is angularly club-shaped. 



Colours in life : upper surface of carapace and legs orange, lower surface 

 white, eyes brown, eggs bright yellow. Spirit specimens are cream-colour 

 with some iridescence on the gastric region and on most of the abdominal 

 terga. 



In a male the length of the carapace is 10 millim., of the abdomen 21 

 millim. An egg-laden female is a little larger. The eggs, though large, are 

 fairly numerous. 



All the specimens known were found tightly impacted in sunken drift 

 twigs of bamboo and mangrove. 

 2202-2205 v 



10 I Andaman S., off the E. coast of N. Andaman I,, 185 fath. " Investigator." 

 2207-2208 ( 



To" 



Chikoplat/Ea, Spence Bate. 



Chiroplataa, Spence Bate, Challenger Crustacea Macrura, 1888, p. II : T. R. R. Stebbing, 

 Hist. Crust., 1893, p. 170: Ortmann in Bronn's Thier-Reich, Malacostraca, p. 1144. 



Chiroplatcea differs from Pylocheles (which it resembles in habits) only in 

 the following particulars : — 



(i) The eyes are obsolescent, being non-facetted, devoid of proper pig- 

 ment, and hardly differentiated from the eyestalks. 



(2) The antennular peduncles are much longer than the carapace. 



Chiroplatcea has been found in the Banda Sea (East Indian Archipelago) 

 at 200 fathoms, in the Bay of Bengal at 419 fathoms, and, according to 

 Ortmann, in the Gulf of Mexico. Its distribution corresponds with that of 

 Pylocheles and Tomopa^iiropsis (also with that of the Macrurous Phoberiis, the 

 Brachyurous Acanthodromia and Trichopeltanum, and the Isopod B athynomus — 

 all being remarkable sublittoral forms). 

 3 



