284 



Records of the Indian Museum. [Vot. XXIV, 



wider than the next segment. The penultimate segment is about 



twice as long as wide and is considerably longer than the ultimate 



segment. 



(iv) The carpus of the first peraeopods is equal to or longer 



than the merus. 



(v) There is a rounded tooth which is frequently serrate on 



the inner margin of the dactylus just behind its middle point. On 



the fixed finger there are two teeth, both of which are frequentl}- 



low and inconspicuous. The proximal tooth is sometimes serrate ; 



the distal tooth is small, never broad at the base as in C. biunguicu- 



latus, and is occasionally acute. 



(vi) The last three peraeopods are stout. In the third pair 



the merus is from 2*5 to 3 times and the propodus from 2*75 to 3 



times as long as wide. 

 The terminal claw of 

 the dactylus is bent at 

 right angles to the 

 main axis of the seg- 

 ment and its basal pro- 

 tuberance is rounded, 

 without a tooth on the 

 proximal side. 



(vii) The dorsal spin- 

 ules of the telson (text- 

 fig. 1056) are small, 

 only about one-ninth 

 the total length (ter- 

 minal spines excluded). 

 In females the distance 

 between the posterior 

 pair and the apex is 

 usually from one-third 

 in 



to one quarter,' 



Text-fig. 105. — Conchodytes tyidacnae Peters 



a. Antennule. 



b. Telson. 



males from one-third 



to two-fifths the distance between the anterior and posterior pairs. 

 The outermost terminal spines are very small and are placed at the 

 apex; the intermediate spines are not conspicuously stouter than 

 the median. 



The largest Indian specimen is a female 27 mm. in length ; a 

 female from the Torres Straits is 34 mm. in length. In an extremely 

 young individual, about 7*5 mm. in length, the accessory spine on 

 the dactylus of the last three peraeopods is not developed. 



Specimens obtained at Port Blair were semitransparent when 

 alive. In females the carapace and abdomen were thinly sprinkled 

 with small white chromatophores, with similar red chromato- 

 phores on the rostrum and anterior parts of the carapace. The 



1 The only exception is a large female from the Torres Straits in which the 

 distance between the posterior teeth and the apex is slightly more than half that 

 separating the two pairs. 



