152 ' A. Alcock — Carcinological Fauna of India. [No. 3, 



massive, compared with the legs, than is usual among the Dromiidse : 

 they are also much longer than any of the legs. The outer (exposed) 

 surfaces of all the joints are more or less granular, some of the granules 

 on the palm being very large and visible without denudation : in 

 addition, the upper border of the arm is denticulate, there are 2 coarse 

 tubercles at the far end of the outer surface of the wrist, and 2 on the 

 palm just behind the finger-joint. 



The first 3 pair of legs are short, and some of their joints are 

 granular and have a tendency to be nodular, a nodule on the carpus 

 being very constant. Of these legs the 3rd pair ends in a characteristic 

 stout talon-like dactylus the tip of which bends towards a stout lobe 

 at the proximal end of the posterior border of the propodite. 



The 4th (last) pair of legs are very slender : they reach to the far 

 end of the carpus of the 3rd pair, and end in a tiny claw-like dactylus. 



In both sexes the abdomen has a convexity along the middle line. 



This species protects itself with the valve of a Lamellibranch shell, 

 which is held, as in a frame, by the strong hook-like dactyli of the 

 third pair of legs. 



In the Indian Museum are 24 specimens, representing both sexes, 

 from the Andamans, from various parts of the Coromandel coast be- 

 tween Tuticorin and the Hooghly Delta, and from off the Indus Delta 

 up to a depth of 62 fathoms. It appears to prefer a muddy bottom. 

 There are also 2 specimens from Hongkong, 



Distribution : coasts of India, China, and Australia. 



18. Gonchoecetes andamanicus n. sp. ? 



Three small specimens from the Andamans differ from adults in 

 the following particulars : — 



The carapace, though not flatter dorsally, is more depressed and 

 therefore much shallower. 



The front is cut into 2 triangular teeth, between which is a tiny 

 denticle not visible in a dorsal view. 



There is no spine or tooth on the upper border of the orbit. 



The antero-lateral borders though granular are thin and overhang- 

 ing, and are without any traces of spines or teeth behind the cervical 

 and branchial grooves. The subhepatic regions are granular but are 

 not bounded by distinct rows of granules. 



Instead of two blunt tubercles behind the finger-joint, there is one 

 large subacute tubercle. 



Sph^rodromia, Alcock. 

 Sphserodro7nia, Alcock, Investigator Deep-Sea Bracliyura, p. 16. 



