Garcinological Fauna of India. 433 



Differs from M. indica in the following characters : — 



(1) the carapace is more than two-thirds — nearly three-quarters — 

 as long as broad : 



(2) the lower border of the orbit of the male is prolonged to the 

 level of the second notch in the lateral border of the cai'apace, and 

 its orbital portion is cut into 9 or 10 little, blunt, obscurely-bilobulate 

 teeth, which decrease very regularly in size from within outwards : 



(3) the chelipeds of the male are hardly 2\ times the length of 

 the carapace ; the arm has denticulate borders — the inner border being 

 a little dilated distally — and is not elongate and slender, its musical 

 crest runs obliquely away from the inner border and is nearer to the 

 middle of that border: the palm is only about half again as lono- as 

 high : the fingers are obliquely-truncated and channelled at tip, the 

 fixed finger has a lobe (though not a very large one ) on its dentary 

 edge, the dactylus is hardly shorter than the upper border of the palm 

 and has a strong hook-like curve : 



(4) the anterior border of the meropodites of the legs is armed, 

 in the first and last pairs with a single subterminal spine, in the middle 

 two pairs with several spines ; the tomentum on the carpopodites and 

 propodites of the middle two pairs of legs is not so thick : 



(5) the abdomen of the male consists of 7 separate segments. 



In the Indian Museum are 8 specimens from Madras, Coconada, 

 Mergui, and the Nicobars : the carapace of the largest male is 15 

 millim. Ions: and 21 broad. 



120. MetapJax dentipes (Heller). 



Helice dentipes, Heller, Novara Crust, p. 62, pi. v. fig. 5 : Kingaley, Proc. Ac. 

 Nat. Sci. Philad. 1880, p. 220. 



Metaplax dentipes, de Man, Joarn. Linn. Soc, Zool., XXII, 1888, p. 162, pi. xi. 

 figs. 1-3. 



This is little moi'e than a large variety of M. distincta, from which 

 it differs in the following particulars : — 



(1) the carapace is less transverse, its length being slightly more 

 than three-fourths of its breadth : 



(2) the lower border of the orbit of the male is divided, in its 

 orbital portion, into 4 or 5 blunt, broad, compressed teeth decreasing 

 in size from within outwards, and each tooth has a little cusp at its 

 outer end : 



(3) in the chelipeds, the inner border of the arm is more dilated 

 distally ; the lobe on the dentary edge of the fixed finger is not so 

 convex, and the dactylus is as long as the upper bolder of the palm 



775 



