Carcinological Fauna of India. 249 



deflexed rostrum, the tip of which is cleft or emarginate. The eye- 

 stalks are long, and the cornea?, which are rather ventral than terminal in 

 position, can be completely retracted from dorsal and usually also from 

 ventral view. The orbit is formed by a sharply-arched supra-ocular 

 eave, which is in contact either with an excavated post-ocular spine or 

 with an intercalated spine as in Maia, and is partly or entirely com- 

 pleted below and in front by a process of the broad basal antennal 

 joint. The mobile portion of the antenna is completely exposed. 



The buccal frame is broadened in front : the merus of the external 

 maxillipeds is broader than the ischium, and has its external angle 

 expanded and its internal angle notched for the insertion of the palp. 



The chelipeds in the adult male are as long as or a little longer 

 than the carapace, are a little stouter than the other legs, and have the 

 palm broader than the other joints, and the fingers arched to meet only 

 at the tip. The chelipeds in the female are slenderer than the other 

 legs, are about the same length as the carapace, and have slender palms 

 and almost straight fingers. The ambulatory legs are moderately 

 elongate, subcylindrical, and have the dactyli not much or not at all 

 shorter than the propodites. 



Abdomen, in both sexes, seven-jointed. 



Key to the Indian species of Micippa. 



I. Rostrum very broad, ending in four sharp lobes or spines 



(i.e , each lobe of the rostrum bilobed) M. philyra. 



II. Rostrum moderately broad, ending in two long sharp lobes 

 or spines (i.e., each lobe of the rostrum simple), not 



inflexed at tip. M. thaha. 



III. Rostrum moderately broad, inflexed at tip ; ending in two 

 insignificant blunt lobes, each of which has a small 

 tooth at its external angle : — 



1. Three large pearl-like tubercles embedded 



in the posterior margin M. margaritifera . 



2. Two small pearl-like tubercles embedded 



in the posterior margin, with a group of 



small spinules between them M. margaritifera 



var. parca. 



Micippa philyra, (Herbst.) Leach. 



Cancer philyra, Herbst, Krabben, III. iii. p. 51, pi. lviii. fig. 4. 



Micippa philyra, Leach, Zool. Miscell., III. 16; and Desmarest, Consid. Gen. 

 Crust., p. 149, pi. xxii. fig. 2 ; and Guerin, Icon. R. A., pi. viii bis, fig. 1 ; and 

 Milne-Edwards, Hist. Nat. Crust., I. 330 ; and Adams and White, ' Samarang' Crust., 

 p. 15 ; and A. Milne-Edwards, Nouv. Archiv. du Mus., VIII. 1872, p. 239, pi. xi. fig. 2 

 and Kossmann, Reise Roth. Meer., Crust., p. 6 (ubi synon.) ; and varr. platipes and 

 95 



