244 Carcinological Fauna of India. 



The carapace is snbcircular, the anterior portion being an arc of a 

 smaller circle than the posterior ; its dorsum is defined all round, behind 

 the hardly at all pubescent front, by a line of fine beads all of equal size. 

 The epistome projects well beyond the edge of the front, which is 

 deflexed, the deflexed portion being slightly acuminate downwards in the 

 middle line. 



None of the regions of the carapace are in any way defined. 

 The thoracic sterna and the base of the abdomen are bordered by 

 granules, which are flattened and depressed. 



The surface of the external maxillipeds is quite devoid of hair, 

 though the edges of the exopodite have a fringe of exceedingly short 

 hair, and the inner edge of the endopodite is, in the female, fringed 

 with hair that is somewhat longer. The expanded exopodite is very 

 broad anteriorly and has the inner edge quite straight (not curved). 



The chelipeds in the adult male are a little more than twice the 

 length, in the adult female about If times the length, of the carapace. 

 The arms are covered with close-set flattened pearly granules on the 

 upper surface except near the tip, on the whole of the inner surface, 

 and on the basal half or third of the under surface. The wrist and 

 hand are quite smooth, and only very occasionally in old males the 

 inner surface of the hand is, under the lens, but nob to the naked eye, 

 roughened. The hand in both sexes is a little more than half again as 

 long as broad, and is not inflated. 



The fingers have much the same form in both sexes : they are 

 almost in the same sti-aight line with the hand ; they meet closely only 

 at tip, although they are faintly denticulate along the greater part of 

 their extent ; they do not, in the male, bear any enlarged dentiform 

 tubercle ; and the length of the dactylus is hardly greater than that 

 of the outer border of the hand. 



The true legs are not much longer than the male arm ; their mero- 

 podites have every surface quite smooth, their propodites are bluntly 

 carinate, and their dactyli lanceolate. 



The abdomen of the male consists of two linear basal pieces and a 

 triangular apical piece, and, between the two, a long narrow triangular 

 plate which has no median denticle and is divided by a transverse 

 groove of no great depth. 



Colours in spirit : smoky bluish brown above, the blue deepest on 

 the carapace. 



The diameter of the carapace of the adult male does not exceed 20 

 niillim., that of the adult female does not exceed 17 to 18 millim. 



In the Indian Museum collection are 110 specimens, both young 

 and adult, of both sexes, from the East coast, from the mouth of the 

 Hooghly to Madras — and also from Karachi. 

 249 



