14 A. Alcock — Carcinological Fauna of India. [No. 1, 



Chelipeds a little unequal, the longer one is less than 1\ times the 

 length of the carapace : the inner angle of the wrist is spiniform and 

 there are two costoe along the upper surface of the hand, otherwise they 

 are smooth and unsculptured. Palm deep and fall, but not inflated, 

 fingers stout, nearly as long as the palm in the shorter cheliped only. 



Legs stout, smooth, unarmed : the 2nd and 3rd pairs, which are 

 the longest, are about If times the length of the carapace : the fourth 

 pair, which are also slightly longer than the larger cheliped, are a 

 little shorter than the first pair. 



Sixth abdominal tergnm of male about twice as broad as long, with 

 gradually convergent sides. 



In the Indian Museum is a single male from Galle (Ceylon), besides 

 numerous specimens from the Mediterranean and the North Sea. 



The geographical distribution of Carcinus msenas has been referred 

 to by several of the authors above-cited. The species has been found 

 at various places on the Atlantic coast of the Northern United States 

 and off the coast of Pernambaco (Brazil) : it is the common shore-crab 

 of the British Islands, and occurs in the North Sea almost up to Arctic 

 limits, in the Baltic, and on the Atlantic coasts of the European con- 

 tinent : it is common in all parts of the Mediterranean, and has been 

 found in the Black Sea and the Red Sea ; it is an Indian species, 

 though evidently a very rare one, and has been reported from the 

 Hawaiian Islands, from the Bay of Panama, and — though there is doubt 

 about this locality — from Australia. 



Its range in fact corresponds very nearly with that of the 

 Macruroid fish Macrurus {Malacocephalus) Isevis Lowe, and recalls that 

 of the Perciform fish Lobotes surinamensis. 



In an Account of the Investigator Deep Sea Madreporaria, recently 

 published by the Trustees of the Indian Museum, I have given lists of 

 43 species of marine animals that are common to the slopes (including 

 both American and European sides) of the Atlantic and of the Oriental 

 Region and Western Pacific, and in a subsequent Account of the Inves- 

 tigator Deep Sea Brachyura, also published by the Trustees of the 

 Indian Museum, I have added several species of Crabs that are found 

 both in American-Atlantic and in East-Indian waters : moreover, 

 Captain A. R. S. Anderson, who is engaged in examining the Investi- 

 gator Echinoids, has discovered some interesting affinities between the 

 West-Indian, the Mediterranean, and the Oriental Echinoid fauna. So 

 that the distribution of Carcinus mdsnas is not so singular as has been 

 supposed. 



The significance of this distribution has been discussed in the 

 works just cited : it is emphasized by the fact that Carcinus msenas is a 

 shore -crab. 



