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



Subgenus Homolax. 



22. Homola megalops, Alcock. 



Eomola megalops^ Alcock, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., May 1894, p. 4Q8 : Illnstrations 

 of the Zoology of the R. I. M. S. ' Investigator,' Crastacea pi. xiv. figs. 1, la : 

 Investigator Deep-Sea Brachyura, p. 9. 



Carapace urn-sliaped, its greatest breadth is across the middle of 

 the branchial region ; its sides, and still more the spinulate lateral 

 borders of its dorsum, are elegantly curved ; the hairs that cover it are 

 so inconspicuous as to be recognizable only with a lens. 



Rostrum a depressed grooved tooth, entire, or emarginate at tip. 

 Four spines on the anterior border of the carapace arranged as in H. 

 harbata. 



The only enlarged spine of the lateral border stands alone on the 

 hepatic region. 



Nine spines on the gastric region — two immediately behind the 

 spines at the base of the rostrum, the other seven in an open S-shaped 

 curve across the middle of the region. 



A single row of spines on the subocular region, which region is re- 

 markably hollowed for the reception of the retracted eye. Two spines, 

 one above the other, on the carapace beside the antenna-peduncle, in 

 addition to the bluntly- dentiform suborbital angle. 



Eyes reniform, very large, their major diameter being one-sixth the 

 breadth of the carapace. 



Chelipeds slender, their arms and wrists distinctly slenderer than 

 the meropodites of the legs : in the adult male they do not reach half- 

 way along the merus of the first pair of legs : they are covered with a 

 short inconspicuous velvet, with hardly any long bristles on the edges 

 of the joints : they are armed much as in H. harbata, but the zipper 

 border of the hand is spiny and the lower border faintly denticulate. 

 The fingers, which have a sharp entire cutting-edge, are as long as the 

 rest of the hand. 



The legs have the surface — especially the dorsal surface — of most 

 of the joints covered with a close short velvet, but have few or no 

 bristles along their edges. The 2nd and 3rd pair, which are nearly a 

 dactylus longer than the first, are nearly three times as long as the cara- 

 pace : the subcheliform 4th pair reach beyond the end of the carpus of the 

 preceding pair. The first three pair have the anterior edge of their 

 greatly compressed meropodite closely spinate, and the posterior edges 

 of that joint and the ischium closely spinulate ; their last three joints 

 have the edges smooth, except for a few small jointed spinules at the 

 base of the posterior border of the dactylus. The last pair of legs have 



