22 



angular j^late. In the 3rd pair the exopodite projects more than one-sixth of 

 its length beyond the ischium, which is longitudinally grooved in the middle 

 line ; and the merus, which is irregularly pentagonal with the antero-external 

 angle nicely rounded off, is broader than long. 



Chelipeds unequal, the larger one is about the same length as the 2nd 

 (longest) true leg, and about half its length consists of hand. All three edges 

 of the merus are bluntly crenulate ; the upper and outer surfaces of the carpus 

 and of more or less of the palm are rather faintly ripple-marked ; the inner 

 angle of the carpus is produced into a stout spine, with a cusp at its base and 

 two or three small serrations on its front edge ; the palm is longer than high, 

 and about as long as the dactylus ; and the fingers are stout, little compressed, 

 curved, pointed, very slightly hooked at tip, and have small blunt teeth : the 

 proximal part of the upper edge of the dactylus is, like the inner upper edge of 

 the palm, pimply. 



Legs stout, with merus and propodite compressed : in old specimens the 

 joints (dactylus excepted) are nearly smooth, but generally the anterior border 

 of the merus is crenulate, and both borders of the projDodite are serrulate, the 

 lower border most distinctly so ; the dactyli always have four rows of thorns. 

 In the 1st and 4th legs the breadth of the propodite is a httle over, in the 2nd 

 and 3rd a very little under, half the length : the anterior border of this joint is 

 almost always convex, and not longitudinally grooved. 



The carapace of a well-grown male is about 1 "75 inch long by 2 inches 

 broad. 



This variety seems to range from the Crimea and Syria on the west, 

 through the Caucasus and Persia, to Kashmir on the east. The following 

 specimens are in the Museum collection : — 



4025 



The above-described variety ibericum differs from the variety edule of the 

 Mediterranean region in the following characters : — 



