159 

 91. Nephropsis Stewiirti, Wood-Mason. 



Nephropsis Stewarti, Wood-Mason, Jouru. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, Vol. XL1I. pt. 2, 1873, p. 40, pi. iv. nnd Ann. 

 Mag. Nat. Hist. (4) XII. 1873, p. 59: A. Milne Edwards, Ann. Soi. Nat., Zool. (5) XIX. 1874, 7. pi. 20, figs. 1-3. 

 Norman, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hiet. (5) IV. 1879, p. 182. 



Illustrations ok the Zoology of this Investigator, Crustacea. Plate XXVII. Fig. 1. 



The whole of the body, sterna excepted, is covered with a close short fur, 

 beneath which are numerous discrete miliary tubercles. 



The rostrum is from two-fifths to a little more than a half the length of 

 the rest of the carapace, measured in the middle line : it is doubly curved, and 

 has a single pair of lateral teeth situated near the middle, and a single pair of 

 spines— similar to and almost in the same transverse line with the antennal 

 spines— at its base : it is finely grooved in the mid-dorsal line up to a small 

 gastric tubercle, behind which the groove is very very faintly continued up to 

 a small tubercle situated near the posterior border of the carapace. 



The grooves of the carapace are very conspicuous, especially the cervical 

 groove, which is broadly U-shaped and is continued with uninterrupted emphasis 

 right across the mid-dorsal line. The branchial area is well defined by a broad 

 ridge, on either side. 



The abdominal terga are delimited from the pleura by curved ridges : they 

 have no trace of median carination. Telson traversed by two diverging ridges 

 which end each in a strong spine ; the outer borders of the caudal swimmerets 

 are also acutely produced posteriorly, and the exopodite is transversely fissured. 

 The abdominal pleura 2-5 are recurved and acute but not spine-like : the 6th 

 pleuron has its posterior angle produced to a spine. 



The 3rd joint of the antennular peduncle is nearly as long as the 1st and 

 2nd combined : the 1st joint is dorsally inflated. 



The external maxillipeds reach the end of the antennular peduncle, their 

 ventral border is setose, and the inner edge of their ischium is provided with 

 an elegant set of teeth. 



The larger chelipeds are covered with a shaggy tomentum, beneath which 

 are numerous miliary tubercles : they are not quite equal in the male, where 

 the larger one is about as long as the body behind the middle of the gastric 

 region, the hand being as long as the first four joints : there are 2 or 3 spinules 

 at the end of the merus and carpus and 1 or 2 on the inner surface of the 

 carpus: the fingers, which are about as long as the palm, end in strongly 

 calcified naked hooked tips, and their cutting edges are finely and evenly crenu- 

 late. In the female the large chelipeds are not much longer than the abdomen, 

 and the hand is hardly as long as the combined ischium and merus. 



The 2nd pair of legs, which are slightly stouter than those behind them, 

 may be a little unequal in the adult male. 



