66 L. A. BORRADAILE. 



Memorial Fund, by which I was enabled to visit Ceylon and join Mr Stanley Gardiner's 

 expedition, and to undertake, among other pieces of work, that which is here set forth. 

 My best thanks are also due to Mr Stanley Gardiner for much kind advice and assistance, 

 and to Mr Edwin Wilson for the care which he has bestowed upon the illustrations. 



TI. The Land Crustaceans of Minikoi. 



1. General. 



The dozen crustacean species living on land in the Island of Minikoi more than make 

 up in number and activity for their comparative poverty in kinds. They are certainly the 

 most conspicuous, as they are probably the most numerous, animals in the island. The 

 Crabs are represented by six species only. Living in burrows, close along the high-water 

 mark of the sandy shore of the lagoon, the sage-green and yellow coloured Ocypode cera- 

 tophthalma (Pallas) is very numerous. Inland, the place of this species is taken by the 

 brownish Ocypode cordimana Desm., whose underground galleries are plentiful in the sandy 

 soil, especially along paths and open spaces. Two species of Geograpsus — G. grayi (H. M.- 

 Edw.) and G. crinipes (Dana) — are common, the former more so than the latter, which seems 

 to like damp spots by the side of pools and tanks of fresh water for which G. grayi shows 

 no great preference. These active and conspicuous species, though they are rather hard 

 to distinguish as spirit specimens, are perfectly distinct in life, their colour alone serving 

 to separate them, were there no other differences. G. grayi gives the impression of being 

 black and white (in point of fact the back is purple and the legs and underside yellowish), 

 while G. crinipes is of a bright orange colour^ 



Another small Grapsid belongs to Kingsley's subgenus Orthograpsus'-, which is included 

 by Alcock^ in the genus Geograpsus, Stimps. Unfortunately, a part of the Minikoi col- 

 lection was damaged on the way home, and there are left of this crab only two badly 

 mangled specimens. So far as can be seen from these, it is near to, but not the same 

 as, Dana's Grupsus longitarsis*. The points in which the two forms differ are as follows 

 (fig. 12): — -1. In the Minikoi specimens the teeth on the underside of 

 the outer end of the meropodites of the walking legs are low and blunt, 

 and much less marked than in Dana's figure. 2. The same is the case 

 with the tooth at the end of the upper edge of this joint. 3. The hairy 

 line along the dactylopodites of the walking legs is wanting. 4. The tooth 

 at the outer angle of the orbit is shorter than in G,. longitarsis. It shields 

 only about a fourth of the cornea, instead of more than a half, as in Dana's 

 figure. The colour of the crab when alive is a dull brownish-green, and is 

 not much altered by preservation in spirit. The length is about half an 

 inch. 



Ik'"- \" f'^'^°h ^^ ^^^ absence of better material, I am unwilling to give any opinion 



side of Geograpsus ^® *° ^^^ specific distinctness of this little crab. In the list below ^ it 

 longitarsis, var. mi- will appear as a variety (minikoiensis) of Dana's species. 



The last of the crabs, the little Metasesarvia rousseauxi H. M.-Edw., is 



' For a careful discussion of tlie differences between these ^ Alcock, Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, lxix. ii. 3, p. 394 (1900). 



species, see De Man, Zool. Jahrh. Syst. ix. pp. 80 S. (1895). * For references to literature see below, p. 68. 



- Kingsley, P. Acad. Philad. 1880, pp. 180, 194 (1880). = p_ g?. 



