265 



Eyes movable, terminal on the eyestalks, almost hidden by the rostrum. 



The ventral border of the ischium of the external maxillipeds ends in a 

 spine, and there are two large spines on the same border of the merus. 



The chelipeds in both sexes are massive and are longer than the fully 

 extended body, and they vary very greatly in form : on the merus there are 

 generally two longitudinal rows of spines, the inner of which is the most con- 

 spicuous and most constant, and there is always a large subterminal spine on the 

 inner border of the carpus : the fingers, which are shorter than the palm, may 

 either be quite straight (as they usually are in the female), or the fixed finger of 

 one or both hands may be arched outwards and excavated along its cutting edge, 

 so as to meet its fellow only at tip (as is usually the case in adult males). 



In the next 8 pairs of legs the anterior border of the merus and carpus is 

 coarsely serrated, and the dactylus, which is not much more than half the length 

 of the propodite, is stout and has the posterior border serrated. 



In an egg-laden female the length of the fully extended body is 25 millim., 

 and of the chelipeds 27 millim. In males of the same size the chelipeds are 80 

 millim. long. 



237 specimens were taken in the Arabian Sea, off the Travancore coast, in 

 430 fathoms. Also taken off the N. Maldive Atoll in 210 fathoms, and in the 

 Bay of Bengal off Ceylon in 296-320 fathoms. 



-n j -NT 783 1380 2215-2314 



Regd. Nos. : : T5 . 



35. Munidopsis (Orophorhynchus) Edwardsii (Wood-Mason). 



Plate III. fig. 4. 



Elasmonotus edwardsii, Wood-Mason, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Feb. 1891, p. 201. 



Orophorhynchus edwardsii, Milue Edwards and Bouvier, Ann. Sci. Nat., Zool., (7) XVI. 1894, p. 2S7. 



Body and appendages covered with a velvety tomentum. 



Rostrum broad, acutely triangular, simple, less than half the length of the 

 carapace, dorsally carinated. 



Frontal border of carapace oblique, with a sharp supra-antennal tooth : 

 antero-lateral angle of carapace subacute, behind it the lateral margin is bilobed, 

 the anterior lobe, which occupies all the space between the two branches of the 

 cervical groove, having a salient subacute cristiform margin : posterior border 

 of carapace smooth : dorsum of carapace unarmed, as also is the abdomen. 



Eyestalks vertically compressed, sublaminar, fused and fixed, produced 

 beyond the small laterally-compressed eye into a coarse spine. 



Ventral border of merus of external maxillipeds obscurely serrated. 

 'helipeds .of the male hardly longer than the combined carapace and 

 m : the ischium has a subterminal spine on the produced ventral border ; 

 34 



