Garcinological Fauna of India. 391 



G'c«jw((.s Kingsley, Proo. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phijad. 1880, pp. 188 and 192 : llier.^, 

 Cliallengei- Brachyura, p. 2.54. 



Croniopsis, De Haan, Faun. .lapon. Crnst. p. 33. 



Carapace little broader tliau long, inucli depressed, tlie regions 

 fairly well defined, the branchial groove particularly clear, the branchial 

 regions with regular obliquely transverse ridges, the gastric region with 

 a transverse squamiform sculpture. The lateral borders are arched and 

 are armed with a tooth, placed immediately behind tlie acute outer 

 orbital angle. 



Front about half the breadth of the anterior border of the carapace, 

 strongly deflexed : along the line of flexion are 4 tubercles, the outer of 

 which on either side correspond with the supra orbital angles. 



Orbits of moderate size, deep, distinctly divided into two fossae : 

 their lower border is deeply notched near the outer angle : the wide 

 inner orbital hiatus is filled pai tly by the antennal peduncle and partly 

 by a sti^ong isolated tooth that belongs to the inner of the two fosssa 

 into which the orbit is divided. 



The antennules fold nearly transversely in rather narrow fossae : 

 the interantennulary septum is vei^y broad. The antennal flagellum 

 is short, and lies practically in the orbital cavity : the excretory tubercle 

 of the basal antenna-joint is singularly prominent. 



Epistome of good length fore and aft, well defined ; its wings run 

 up toAvards the oi'bital hiatus. Buccal cavity square with the antero- 

 l.iteral corners rounded off. The external maxillipeds are widely 

 distant, leaving between them a rhomboidal gap in which the mandibles 

 are exposed : the ischium and merus are both nanow, the merus being 

 slightly shorter than the ischium, and the palp, which is coarse — 

 (•.«!pecially as to its carpus — articulates at the antero-external angle of 

 the merus. 



Clielipeds subequal in both sexes and much shorter tlian the legs, 

 though, in the male, of a somewhat stouter make : hands and fingers 

 short and stout, the tips of the fingers broad and hollowed en cuillere. 



Legs broad and compressed, especially as to the merus : the dorsal 

 surface of some of the joints has a sort of reticulate or squamiform 

 sculpture, and the dactyli are thorny. 



Tlie abdomen in both sexes consists of 7 segments, and in the male 

 its base is as broad as the sternum between the last pair of legs. 



Distribution : rocks and reefs of all the tropical and subtropical 

 seas. 



The Grapsi of Indian seas are found in considerable number 

 wherever there are rocks. They live out of water and are vciy cun- 

 ning and active : if they cannot succeed in dodging their pursuer they 



733 



