200 Carcinological Fauna of India. 



Colours in spirit rusty reddish. 



The carapace of the average adult male is 50 millim. long and 56 

 millim. broad, of the adult female 40 millim. long and 48 millim. 

 broad. 



Fairly common on soft muddy bottoms along the east coast of India 

 between 70 and 250 fathoms. 



In the Indian Museum collection are 96 specimens of both sexes and 

 all ages. 



Myra, Leach. 



Myra, Leach, Zool. Miscell. III. p. 23. 

 Myra, Milne-Edwards, Hist. Nat. Crust. II. 125. 



Myra, Bell, Trans. Linn. Soc. Vol. XXI, 1855, p. 296, and Cat. Leacos. Brit. Mas. 

 p. 12. 



Myra, Miers, ' Challenger ' Brachynra, p. 312. 



? Myropsis, Stimpsou, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Vol. II. p. 156. 



Carapace ovoid (or globular in Myropsis and in the young of most 

 Indian species of Myra), terminating posteriorly in three spines, — two 

 on, and one in the middle line immediately above, the posterior border. 

 (But in Myropsis and in the young of several species of Myra there is a 

 pair of additional spines, — one on either postero-lateral border just above 

 the last pair of legs). The surface of the carapace is either smooth or 

 granular, never nodular or eroded, and resembles that of Leucosia in not 

 having all the regions demarcated, at any rate in the adult. 



The front is well delimited from the carapace, and although the 

 dentiform prolongations of the septa of the branchial channels may 

 sometimes project beyond it, yet the whole of the edge of the buccal 

 cavern is never in the adult seen beyond it in a dorsal view. 



The hepatic region — the side-wall of which commonly forms a 

 distinct facet — is generally separated from the branchial region by a 

 broad notch in the antero- lateral margin, this being continuous with a 

 depression in the pterygostomian face of the carapace and with a longi- 

 tudinal groove in the side-wall of the carapace, — the whole foreshadow- 

 ing the thoracic sinus of Leucosia (? in Myropsis). 



The orbits are deep, and although the upper edge is a little emar- 

 ginate, the retracted eye is completely concealed : the three sutures in 

 the roof and outer wall are very distinct : as in Leucosia the floor prac- 

 tically coincides with the roof of the buccal cavern, as regards its edge 

 at any rate. 



The antennas are loosely lodged in a gap at the inner canthus of the 

 orbit. The antennules fold obliquely. 



The buccal cavern is elongate : the acutely-triangular merus of 



205 



