CRUSTACEA OF THE MERGUI ARCHIPELAGO. 161 
The hands appear quite smooth to the naked eye, except at 
and near the upper margin of the palm and of the mobile finger, 
where they are minutely granular; when examined, however, 
under a lens, they seem to be covered everywhere with minute 
granules. The fingers have horny tips, which are slightly spoon- 
like excavated; the mobile finger is armed with many small 
teeth, the basal ones of which are somewhat larger than the 
others. The immobile finger, which is higher at its proximal 
than at the distal half on account of a prominent rounded 
lobe along the former, is armed with many small teeth, of which 
the basal ones are rather obtuse, those of the distal half being 
more acute, 
The ambulatory legs much resemble those of Metaplax crenu- 
latus, but they are less elongate and less spinulose. The legs of 
the second pair (=the first pair of ambulatory legs) and those 
of the fifth are nearly of equal length, and much shorter than 
the legs of the third and fourth pair, which are also equal in 
length. The meropodites of the legs of the second and of the 
fifth pair are armed with a single small spine at the distal end of 
the upper margin, but those of the third and of the fourth pair 
have a row of five or six acute spines along the distal half of the 
upper margin. The under margins of the meropodites present 
no spines, and the other joints of the legs are quite unarmed. 
The inferior margins of the distal ends of the meropodites of the 
legs of the third and fourth pair are hairy, and the carpopodites 
and the propodites of the same legs are also very hirsute, espe- 
cially at and near their articulations. 
Dimensions :— 
millim. 
Breadth of the cephalothorax (distance between the 
second antero-lateral teeth) ................ 164 
Weneth ot the cephalothorax ...........-.2a0-- 114 
* RIC OCIID CMOS | icatysie mun uul  titicg wales 30 
a » hand (the fingers included) ...... 16 
i“ 31 under margin cfthe palm .......-. 103 
a » legs of the penultimate pair ...... 33 
Metaplax distinctus has hitherto been recorded only from 
Bombay, It is one of the rare species of Brachyurous Crustacea. 
LINN. JOURN.— ZOOLOGY, VOL. XXII. 11 
