1900.] A. Alcock — Carcinological Fauna of India. 435 



122. Metaplax intermedia, de Man. 



Metaplax intermedins, de Man, Journ. Linn. Soc, ZooL, XXII. 1888, p. 166, pi. 

 xi. figs. 7-9. 



Differs from M. indica in the following characters : — 



(1) In the male the lower border of the orbit is continued a little 

 beyond the first notch in the antero-lateral border of the carapace, and 

 at its inner end it is cnt into a series of 5 or 6 little even teeth that 

 decrease in size from within outwards, and then it gradually becomes 

 minutely and regularly pectinate : 



(2) the chelipeds of the male are markedly unequal, the difference 

 in size being in the hand : their length is about 2J times that of the 

 carapace : the arm is of no great length and is somewhat broadened 

 across the middle, its edges are granular, and its musical crest lies in 

 the middle of the inner border, close to and nearly parallel with that 

 border : the palm has granular edges and is much compressed at its 

 anteroinferior corner ; in the larger cheliped the hand is at least as high 

 as Jong : the fingers are obliquely truncated and strongly channelled ; 

 in the larger hand the dactylus is hooked and has a lobe on its cutting 

 edge near the proximal end, while the fixed finger is broad, is thin and 

 compressed at its basal end, and presents on its cutting edge a notch 

 (corresponding with the lobe on the dactylus) followed by a high lobe 

 that descends obliquely to the tip of the finger : 



(3) near the far end of the anterior border of the meropodites of 

 the legs is a spine : 



(4) the abdomen of the male has all 7 segments distinct, and is 

 rather broadly triangular. 



In the Indian Museum are 11 specimens from the Godavari Delta, 

 the Gangetic Delta and Mergui. The carapace of the largest male is 

 9| millim. long and 15 broad. 



123. Metaplax crenulata, Gerstaecker. 



Rhaconotus crenulatus, Gerstaecker, Arch. f. Naturges. XXII. i. 1856, p. 142, 

 pi. v. fig. 5 : Kingsley, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Philad. 1880, p. 213. 



Metaplax crenulatus, de Man, Journ. Linn. Soc, Zool., XXII. 1888, p. 156, and 

 Zool. Jabrb., Syst., IV. 1889, p. 439. 



Carapace about three-fourths as long as broad, convex, with the 

 regions well defined and the cervical and epibranchial furrows deep and 

 coarse, its surface pitted. 



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

 borders of the carapace cut into five teeth, the edges of which are 

 serrated ; the anterior part of the lateral borders is distinctly arched. 



