( 118 ) 



The left vas deferens protrudes as a long rigidly-coiled blunt-tipped tube, 

 the coil taking about two complete turns in the Indian species. The right 

 vas deferens does not protrude. 



The abdominal appendages are placed on the left side and are three in 

 number in the male and four in number (the first three biramous and large) 

 in the female. The telson is deeply bifid and spinose. 



The gills are phyllobranchise and are ii in number on either side, 

 arranged as in Parapa^urtts, Sympagunis, Eupagurzis and Nematopagtirus. In 

 the West Indian species, according to Milne Edwards and Bouvier, the gill- 

 plates are bifid at tip, but this is not the case in the East Indian species. 



This genus appears to me to be most closely related to Eupagunis. 



The species of Spiropagurus have a sublittoral tendency and, like so 

 many other elements of the Oriental sublittoral fauna, a circumtropica! dis- 

 tribution at definite points : four species belong to the Panama-Pacific and 

 West Indian region, one occurs in the Eastern Atlantic from the Canaries to 

 Senegambia, and one (with varieties) is found in Oriental seas from the 

 Maldives to China and Japan. 



The North-eastern Atlantic species that were referred to this genus by 

 Sars are now considered to belong to Anapa^urns. 



Key to the Indian species and varieties of the genus Spiropagurus. 



A. Byestalks dorsally with transverse ciliated lines, one of 



which forms a fringe to the base of the eye : antennal 



acicle irregularly setose ... ... ... S. spiriger. 



B. Eyestalks dorsally smooth and nude : antennal acicle 



long-plumose : — 



1. Two longitudinal rows of spines on carpus of chelipeds S. spiriger var. profundorum. 



2. Three longitudinal rows of spines on carpus of 



chelipeds and 2nd and 3rd legs _ ... S. spiriger var. spinosicarpis. 



3. Upper edge of merus of chelipeds carinate : upper 



surface of merus of 2nd and 3rd legs very sharply 



carinate, longitudinally, near the anterior border. S. spiriger var. lophomeris. 



I. Spiropagurus spiriger, DeHaan. Plate XIII., fig. i. 



Pagurus spiriger, De Haan, Faun. Japon. Crust., 1849, p. 206, pi. xlix, fig. 2 

 Spiropagurus spiriger, De Haan, Stimpson, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. (1858) 1859, p. 248 : 

 Henderson, Challenger Anomura, 1888, p. 72 ; and Trans. Linn. Soc, Zool. (2), V., 1893, p. 425, 

 and J. A. S. B., LXV. pt. 2, 1896, p. 524 : Ortmann. Zool. Jahrb. Syst., VI., 1891-92, p. 297 : 

 Lanchester, P. Z, S , 1902, II., p. 364. 



Carapace depressed, tomentose, the branchial regions more or less studded 

 with small, transverse, squamiform markings (but sometimes quite smooth). 



Rostrum broadly triangular, hardly as prominent as the broad antennal 

 angles of the carapace. 



