17 



denuded, tliere are distant vesiculous granules on the upper and lower edges of 

 the arms, on the upper and outer surfaces of the wrists, and on the hands every- 

 where except the lower part of the inner surface : fingers hollowed, the immo- 

 bile finger more strongly toothed than the dactylus. 



The first two pairs of legs are stout and about as long as the chelipeds. 

 The last two pairs are slender, and are about half the length of the other legs, 

 and each ends in a small claw-like dactylus which is opposed to two or three 

 little claw-like spines at the end of the propodite. 



The sternal grooves of the female are very short, ending well behind the 

 level of the genital openings. The female has 5 pair of abdominal legs of the 

 usual form. 



A single female with a carapace 18 millim. in diameter from the Bay of 

 Bengal, off Nellore coast, 112 fms. 



Aeachnodeomia. 



Carapace elongate-oblong but somewhat broader behind than in front, deep, 

 inflated, tomentose, its texture thin but well calcified : two creases break either 

 lateral border, the posterior one being the more distinct and being continued to 

 the cardiac region (= cervical groove). 



The front is horizontal, prominent, and bifid. 



The antennule and eye of either side are completely retractile into a common 

 deep fossa (just as in Dromia) which affords them complete protection. As in 

 Dromia, the floor of this common antennular-orbital fossa is formed by a sub- 

 ocular (" antennal ") tooth in contact with the basal joint of the antenna, and, 

 as in Dromia, the outer waU of the orbit is breached by a wide gap. The orbital 

 portion of the fossa, which is loosely filled by the eyes, has the hollow for the 

 eyes much deeper than the hollow for the eyestalk. The eyestalks are long and 

 slender, the eyes small but perfectly formed and well pigmented. 



The two basal joints of the antennjB, which are quite freely movable, largely 

 fill the gap in the lower wall of the orbit, and lie in the same plane with the 

 antennules ; the second joint has its antero-external angle produced to form a 

 coarsish spine : the antennal flageUa are longer than the carapace. 



The palate is particularly well demarcated from the epistome and is rather 

 broader in front than behind : the ridges that define the expiratory canals are 

 very distinct. The epistome is in the closest possible contact with the front, but 

 without complete fusion. The external maxilhpeds are distinctly operculiform, 

 but owing to the moderate expansion of the merus and to the coarseness of the 

 palp, they have a slight pediform cast : they close the buccal cavern, but not so 

 tightly as in Dromia, 



