1900.] A. Alcock — Carcinological Fauna of India. 445 



their long strong dactyli are square in section and have a series of 

 spines along all four edges. 



The abdomen in both sexes consists of 7 separate segments, and in 

 the male its base covers the whole width of the sternum between the 

 last pair of legs. 



The branchiae are eight in number on either side : the gill chambers 

 are vaulted and remarkably capacious, and they are lined by a thick 

 vascular membrane folded to form a sort of pocket, and as in several 

 other crabs — such as Gelasimus and Ocypoda—th&t spend most of their 

 time out of water, a sort of " choroid process " of this membrane, 

 shaped like a gill-plume, projects laterally over the pleura of the 

 penultimate pair of legs. 



The species of this genus live on land. They are very common in 

 the jungles of the Andamans where they may be found in the day time 

 crouching under roots, fallen logs, &c, sometimes in burrows near the 

 shore. 



Distribution: West Indies and neighbouring coasts of America, 

 Cape Verde Is. and West Coast of Africa, Indo-Pacific from Madagascar 

 to Chili. 



Key to the Indian species of Cardiosoma. 



I. Carapace very strongly convex fore and aft, the regions 

 indistinct : breadth of the orbit not much more than half 

 its length : merus of the legs with bristles only at its 



distal end G.carnifex. 



II. Carapace very moderately convex fore and aft, the 

 regions distinct : breadth of the orbit about two-thirds 

 its length : merus of the legs with bristles along its whole 

 length C. hirtipes. 



128. Cardiosoma carnifex, (Hbst.). 



Cancer carnifex and hydromus, Herbst, Krabben etc. II. v. 163, 164, pi. xli. figs. 

 1, 2(1794). 



Cardisoma carnifex, Latreille, Encycl. Method. X. p. 685 : Milne Edwards, Hist. 

 Nat. Crust. II. 23 : Guerin, Icon. Regne An., Crust, pi. v. fig. 2 : Dana, U. S. Expl. 

 Exp. Crust, pt. I. p. 377 : Milne Edwards, Ann. Sci. Nat. Zool. (3) XX. 1853, p. 204 : 

 Heller, Novara Crust, p. 35 : A. Milne Edwards, Nouv. Archiv. du Mns. IV. 1868, 

 p. 71, and IX. 1873, p. 264: Hoffmann, in Pollen and van Dam, Faun. Madagasc, 

 Crust, p. 12 : Brocchi, Ann. Sci. Nat., Zool., (6) II. 1875, Art. 2, p. 85, pi. xvii. 

 figs. 117, 118 {male appendages) : Miers, P. Z. S. 1877, p. 137, and Phil. Trans. 1879, 

 p. 490, and Challenger Brachyura, p. 220 : Hilgendorf, MB. Ak. Berl. 1878, p. 801 : 

 de Man, Notes Leyden Mus. II. 1880, p. 31, and in Weber's Zool. Ergebn. Niederl. 

 Ost.-Ind. II. p. 285: Richters, in Mobius, Meeresf. Maurit. p. 157: Lenz and 

 Richters, Abh. Senck. Nat. Ges. XII. 1881, p. 422: Taschenberg, Zeitschr. f. 



