38 
identity of the genera and gives precedence to Curtonotus, but 
in the same year Milne-Edwards upheld the distinctness of his 
own genus and substituted Carcinoplax for the preoccupied 
name of de Haan’s. 
The present striking species is excellently portrayed in de 
Haan’s figure and text, and again thoroughly’ described by 
Alcock. At all points the South African specimens prove 
themselves to be representatives of it, faithfully agreeing with 
those examined from Japan and the Indian Ocean. 
The largest of three specimens, all males, measures in greatest 
width of carapace 59°5 mm., with a length of 45mm. The two 
teeth of the antero-lateral margin behind the extra-orbital 
tooth, are, as is said to be usual in well-grown samples, all but 
obsolete. 
In general effect the carapace looks like a biscuit or circle of 
light pastry lightly browned. In detail it is found to be broadly 
truncate behind, the anterior part being divided between a 
transversely grooved and sinuously emarginate front, and the 
two deep orbits each nearly as wide as the front. Alcock 
describes the orbits as shallow, but as the supra-orbital angle 
coalesces with the more advanced side of the front, practically 
the orbits on the inner side are deep. The upper border of 
the orbit is divided into two parts by a small suture line, the 
granulation or beading being stronger on the outer than on 
the inner of the two sections. 
In the chelipeds of our largest specimen, that on the right 
has a fourth joint measuring in full 70 mm., with a hand in 
extreme length 107 mm., of which the immovable finger occu- 
pies 32mm. The length of the hand in the left cheliped is 
100mm. Ina slightly smaller specimen the hand of the right 
cheliped measures 100 mm., while the fourth joint is 71 mm. 
All three specimens agree in showing a conspicuous tooth 
near the end of the fourth joint, one projecting on each 
side of the short wrist, and, along the inner surface of the gradu- 
ally-widening palm, a blunt crest ending in a blunt tooth. 
The teeth of the fingers are numerous and very unequal, the 
larger ones being more or less adapted for interlocking. One 
cheliped is slightly longer than the other, with the palm dis- 
tally a little more widened, producing something of a gap at 
the base of the closed fingers. The larger cheliped is on the 
right in two specimens, but in the third, which is smaller, with 
the palm much less than twice the length of the fingers, it is 
on the left. 
The colour in living animals is stated by de Haan to be 
ex roseo caerulescens,’ which would seem to mean rose-red 
shaded with blue. 
“6 
