288 Carcinological Fauna of India. 



the remarkable trou gh- like prolongation of the buccal cavity, which they 

 completely close in below ; their meropodite, which is prolonged far be- 

 yond the insertion of the palp, covers the bases of the antennules and an- 

 tenna?, their tips in fact being visible from above ; the slender exopodite 

 does not much surpass the ischium. 



The chelipeds are short but massive, and are equal, the merus is 

 curved, the carpus is very small, the palm is large and tumid, and the 

 fingers which are set almost at right angles to the hand, are broad, 

 compressed, pointed, very closely apposable, and have their cutting-edge 

 very finely denticulated. 



The second and third legs are of great length, being more than 

 four times the length of the body, the merus forming more than half 

 their extent ; their dactylus is filiform and is not much longer than 

 their protopodite. The fourth and fifth legs have the family position, 

 but are mere rudiments, being of hair-like tenuity and only about three- 

 fourths of the carapace in length ; the fifth ends in a hook-like dactyl- 

 us. 



A female from the Andaman Sea, 405 fathoms, has the following 

 dimensions: — Length of carapace 6 5 millim., breadth 6'5 millim., 

 length of cheliped 9 millim., length of second leg 285 millim., of fourth 

 leg 45 millim. A male from the Andaman Sea, 265 fathoms, is 

 smaller. 



Colour in the fresh state chalky pink. 



Family RANINID^E. 



Raniniens, Milne Edwards, Hist. Nat. Crust. II, 190. 

 Raninoidea, De Haan, Faun. Japon. Crust, p. 136. 

 Raninidea, Dana, U. S. Expl. Exp. Crust, pt. I. pp. 400, 403. 

 Raninidea, Henderson, ' Challenger ' Anomura, p. 26. 



Carapace much longer than broad, remarkably elongate and convex 

 from side to side, commonly obconical or obovate in outline, the greatest 

 breadth being at or close behind the level of the front. Abdomen nar- 

 row in both sexes, the greater number of the terga fully exposed in a 

 dorsal view. The sternum is elongate, broad between the first pair or 

 first two pairs of legs, and then becoming narrow and finally linear. 



The true front is narrow : in the same plane with it the antero- 

 external angle of the orbit is usually produced, somewhat as in Dorippe, 

 to form a spine ; and between the two is the orbit. 



Except in the deep-sea forms the eyestalks are long. The orbits 

 are very complete, except sometimes on the ventral aspect, where the 

 large basal joints of the autennules and antennas serve in large part as 

 an orbital floor. 



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