Carcinological Fauna of India. 437 



Epistome short : buccal cavern squarisli, its antexMor border is 

 crenate and projects strongly in a horizontal direction. The external 

 maxillipeds do not meet across the buccal cavern, but the space between 

 them, which is not very broad, is occluded by bristles : their merus is 

 as broad as the ischium, and carries the palp at its summit : their 

 exognath has no Jlagellum. \x '^^A .■■.■r- f. As-r"^-' k f ^ ""J" I . c ■K.^-^>^-" v 



Chelipeds and legs dorsallj rugose. Chelipeds subequal : in the 

 male they are more massive than the legs, and longer than those of the 

 first and last pairs, in the female they are shorter and slenderer than any 

 of the legs : the fingers are stout and have rounded hollowed-out tips. 



Legs very stout, with broad massive meri and short stout serrated 

 dactyli. 



I'he abdomen of the male is triangular and rather broad : it covers 

 all the sternum between the last pair of legs, and it may have all 7 

 segments distinct or the 3rd 4th and 5th fused. In the female the 

 abdomen is broad and consists of 7 segments, but the 3rd 4th and 5th 

 do not move independently of one another. 



Distribution : all warm seas, and extending into the Mediterranean. 

 In habit the Plagusise to a certain extent resemble the Grapsi, 

 dodging about rocks that are awash at high tide, and hiding in crannies 

 when pursued. They also resemble Vancna in being able to make 

 themselves at home on drift timber in the open sea. This will account 

 for the very wide range of some of the species. 



The presence of two species in the Mediterranean implies nothing, 

 of itself, for they may very probably have been carried there by ships. 

 On the " Investigator" one could always see a Plagtisia adhering to the 

 ship's side near the water-line. 



12k Plagusia depressa var. squamosa (Hbst.). 



? Cancer depressus, Herbst {nee Fabr.), Krabben &c. I. ii. 117, pi. iii. figs. 35 a-h. 



Cancer squamosus, Herbsfc, I. ii. 260, pi. xx. fig. 113 {v. Hilgeudorf, SB. Ges. 

 Nafc. Freunde, 1882, p. 24). 



Plagusia squamosa, Latreille, Gen. Crust, p. 34, and Nonv. Diet. Hist. Nat. XXVI. 

 y p. 533, and (?) Encycl. Method. X. 1825, p. 145 : Lamarck, Hist. Nat. Anim. Sana 

 -^z Ver^. p. 246 : Milne Edwards, Hist. Nat. Crust. II. 94 : Krauss, Sudafr. Crust, 

 p. 42: Milne Edwards, Ann. Sci. Nat., Zool., (3) XX. 1853, p. 178 : Heller, SB. 

 Akad. Wien, XLIII. 1861, p. 363, and Novara Crust, p. 51 : A. Milue Edwards, 

 Nonv. Arcliiv. du Mus. IX. 1873, p. 298 : Richters, in Mobius, Meerosf. Maurit. 

 p. 157 : Hilgendorf, SB. Ges. Nat. Frenndo, Berlin, 1882, p. 24. 



Plagusia tuberculata, Lamarck, I. c. p. 247 : Latreille, Enoycl. Method. X. p. 146 : 

 Milne Edwards, I.e. p. 94: Miers, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (5) I. 1878, p. 148: 

 Haswell, Cat. Austral. Crust, p. 110 : Miiller, Verh. Ges. Basal, VIII. 1886, p. 476 : 

 de Man, Notes Leydea Mus. V. 1888, p. 168, and Zool. Jahrb., Syst., IX. 1895-97, 



779 



