1871.] 189 



Contributions to Indian Carctnology. — On Indian and Malayan 



TELPHusiDiE, Part I, — by James Wood-Mason of Queen's College, 



Oxford. 



(With Plates XI and XII.) 

 [Read 5th April, received 25th April, 1871.] 



In the year 1869,* M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards published a 

 Revision of the genus Telphusa with descriptions of some new forms 

 which brought up the number of known species to thirty-six. 



In 1868,f E. von Martens (in a paper entitled " Ueber einige OsU 

 asiatisclie Siisswasserthiere" described T. Bomeensis from the rivers 

 of Borneo. 



In this, the first part of my paper on the Telphusid2E, which 

 will be continued in succeeding numbers of the Journal, I shall 

 give descriptions of fifteen new species; of which two belong to 

 Milne-Edwards' sub-genus Paratelphusa. 



For the opportunity of drawing up these descriptions, I am 

 especially indebted to my friend, Dr. F. Stoliczka, who has also 

 added to the Museum collections under my care many interesting 

 species of marine Crustacea ; to Dr. Francis Day ; to my colleague 

 Dr. J. Anderson who collected several species during the Yunan 

 expedition ; to Major God win- Austen and to Captain Stewart-Pratt 

 of Morar ; to Messrs. W. T. Blanford, V. Ball, H. L. Houghton 

 and above all to that indefatigable observer Mr. S. E. Peal of 

 Sibsaugur who has so greatly enriched the collections of the 

 Indian Museum in every group of the Arthropoda. 



The Telphiisid^ are essentially fresh-water Crustaceans, but in 

 India are commonly called land-crabs from the circumstance that 

 many of the species are able to live for a very considerable time 

 out of water, far removed from rivers, tanks, marshes, jhils, &c, 

 provided that the air that enters the branchial chamber is sufficient- 

 ly saturated with moisture to prevent the branchise from becoming 

 desiccated, and so unfitted for the performance of their respiratory 

 functions. My freind, Captain Stewart Pratt, forwarded to me, at 

 the commencement of the present hot season, specimens of Telphusa 



* Nouvelles arch, du Mus., 1869, torn. V, p. 161—191, pi. 8—11. 

 t Wiegmann'a Archiv fur Naturg., xxxiv, Jahrg., 1 Bd., p. 18. 



