432 A. Aloock — Carcinological Fauna of India. [No. 3, 



Dactylns of chela? of male with a prominent lobe 

 projecting on the dentary edge : chelipeds of male 

 markedly unequal : — 



i. Palm of larger cheliped of male longer than high. M. elegans. 

 ii. Palm of larger cheliped of male higher than long. If. intermedia. 



118. Metaplax indica, Edw. 



Metaplax indicus, Milne Edwards, Ann. Sci. Nat., Zool., (3) XVIII. 1852, p. 161 r 

 and Archiv. du Mus. VII. 1855, p. 165, pi. xi. figs. 2-2c. 



Carapace about two-thirds as long as broad, deepish, a little convex, 

 its surface smooth, the regions and the cervical and epibranchial grooves 

 faint. 



Front about a third the greatest breadth of the carapace. Lateral 

 borders of the carapace nearly straight, cut into 4 teeth, of which the 

 first 2 are large, the 3rd very small, and the 4th very inconspicuous. 



Lower border of the orbit of the male continued to the level of the 

 first notch in the lateral border of the carapace, unevenly erenulate. 



Chelipeds of the male equal, more than 2^- times the length of the 

 carapace, smooth and unarmed, to the naked eye : arm long and slender, 

 projecting far beyond the carapace, its musical crest is almost on the 

 inner border, close to its proximal end : palm nearly twice as long as 

 high, increasing in height from its proximal to its distal end : fingers 

 slender, acute, not noticeably channelled and only moderately incurved, 

 neither of them have any large lobes on their dentary edge, the dactylus 

 is hardly shorter than the upper border of the palm, and though it is 

 deflexed is not hooked. 



Legs quite unarmed, the carpopodites and propodites of the two 

 middle pairs remarkably tomentose : the third pair of legs are a little 

 more than twice as long as the carapace. 



The 3rd 4th and 5th abdominal segments of the male are fused 

 together — though the sutures are not obliterated on either side, but 

 only in the middle — to form a single piece. 



In the female the chelipeds are very slender, quite smooth, a 

 little longer than the carapace, and the lower border of the orbit is 

 finely and evenly serrulate. 



In the Indian Museum are a male and a female from Karachi : the 

 carapace of the male is 10 millim. long and 14*5 millim. broad. 



119. Metaplax distincta, Edw. 



Metaplax distinctus, Milne Edwards, Ann. Sci. Nat., Zool., (3) XVIII. 1852, 

 p. 162, pi. iv. fig. 27 : de Man, Journ. Linn. Soc, Zool., XXII. 1888, p. 158, pi. x. 

 figs. 7-9 : Henderson, Trans. Linn. Soc, Zool., (2) V. 1893, p. 391. 



