CRUSTACEA OF THE MERGUI ARCHIPELAGO. 161 



The hands appear quite smooth to the naked eye, except at 

 and near the upper margin of the palm and of the mobile finger, 

 where they are minutely granular; when examined, however, 

 under a lens, they seem to be covered everywhere with minute 

 granules. The fingers have horny tips, Avhich are slightly spoon- 

 like excavated ; the mobile finger is armed with many ^small 

 teeth, the basal ones of which are somewhat larger tlian the 

 others. The immobile finger, which is higher at its proximal 

 than at the distal half on account of a prominent rounded 

 lube along the former, is armed with many small teeth, of which 

 the basal ones are rather obtuse, those of the distal half being 

 more acute. 



The ambulatory legs much resemble those of Metaplax crenu- 

 latus, but they ai'e less elongate and less spinulose. The legs of 

 the second pair ( = the first pair of ambulatory legs) and those 

 of the fifth are nearly of equal length, and much shorter than 

 the legs of the third and fourth pair, which are also equal in 

 length. The meropodites of the legs of the second and of the 

 fifth pair are armed with a single small spine at the distal end of 

 the upper margin, but those of the third and of the fourth pair 

 have a row of five or six acute spines along the distal half of the 

 upper margin. The under margins of the meropodites present 

 no spines, and the other joints of the legs are quite unarmed. 

 The inferior margins of the distal ends of the meropodites of the 

 legs of the third and fourth pair are hairy, and the carpopodites 

 and the propodites of the same legs are also very hirsute, espe- 

 cially at and near their articulations. 



Dimensions : — 



millim. 

 Breadth of the cephalothoi-ax (distance between the 



second antero-lateral teeth) 16^ 



Length of the cephalothorax ll| 



chelipedes 30 



])and (the fingers included) 16 



under margin of the palm 10| 



legs of the penultimate pair 33 



Metaplax distinctus has hitherto been recorded only from 

 Bombay, It is one of the rare t-pecies of Brachyurous Crustacea. 



LINN. JOUEN. — ZOOLOGY, VOL. XXII. 11 



