190 J. Wood-Mason— On Telphusidce. [No. 2, 



Indica which he had obtained from holes dug by the crabs in 

 the neighbourhood of water; the bottoms of these holes were 

 found to be below the level of the neighbouring water, and ther e 

 appears to be good reason for believing that these creatures deepen 

 their holes pari passu with the change in the level of the water, 

 so that moisture sufficient for the maintenance of their branchiae 

 in a state fit for respiration may reach their retreats. Col. Sykes' 

 account* of the so-called land-crabs of the Dekhan, prefixed to 

 Prof. Westwood's description of Telphusa cunicularis = Indica, 

 Latr., gives a good idea of the terrestrial habits, the prodigious 

 numbers, and the extent of the burrowings of these creatures. 



Stimpson,f influenced by the feeble development of the post-fron- 

 tal crest and by the absence of the epibranchial teeth in certain 

 species, but especially by their terrestrial habits, gave them the 

 generic appellation of Geotelphusa. But, as M. Alphonse Milne- 

 Edwards justly remarks, there appear to be no sufficient reasons for 

 the foundation of this new genus, the definition of the limits of 

 such an artificial group being difficult, because there are species 

 possessing all the essential characters of Telphusa, in which the 

 frontal crests become more and more obliterated and the epibran- 

 chial teeth scarcely perceptible. 



The land-crabs, properly so-called, belong to the Gecarcinidje, a 

 family of the Crustacea grapsoidea of Dana ( = Catometopa, 

 M. Edw., minus Telphusieks), and are well known from the ac- 

 counts of the extraordinary periodical migrations of the species 

 of the West Indian genus Gecarcinus to the sea for the purpose of 

 depositing their eggs or brood. This family is represented in 

 India by Cardisoma which is widely distributed, and by Gecarcinuca 

 Jacquemontii, M. — Edw., occurring in great numbers in company 

 with Telphusa Guerini, M. — Edw., at Khandalla in the Western 

 Ghats. 



Dana in his great work on the Crustacea, acknowledging the 

 greater affinities of Telphusidce to the Cancroidea, to which they 

 are united by such forms as JSriphia, removed them from their 



* Trans. Entom. Soc. Lond. vol. i, p. 181. 

 t Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Phil. 1858, p. 179. 



