(Linnaeus, 1758)
A large grotesque species, the carapace broadly pentagonal, and the dorsal surface pronouncedly uneven and deeply eroded, the convex surface of each region being thickly covered with tubercles and pits. A deeply trenched groove on either side of the gastric region and also a curved longitudinal groove on either side of the cardiac region, which is roughly eroded. The rostrum obtuse and thick, covered with tubercles and its dorsal surface deeply hollowed. Orbits are circular and small, upper orbital fissure entirely closed. The hepatic region convex, tuberculated; the antero-lateral border behind the hepatic lobe, armed with a row of 6 or 7 tuberculated teeth; behind this row, the lateral angle is obtusely produced and also tuberculated. A lobular process in the middle of the postero-lateral border and an obtuse process on either side of the staight posterior border.
The basal segment of antenna long and broad, completely filling up the inner orbital hiatus. The pterygostomial surface, the exposed surface of sternum and also that of abdomen are markedly granulated, tuberculated, and show eroded pits or excavations.
Chelipeds huge, asymmetrical, each segment covered with numerous tubercles and stout teeth. The ambulatory legs are less markedly compressed; merus trigonal, anterior and both (upper and lower) posterior borders with a row of obtuse spines; carpus and propodus are tuberculated and their anterior and posterior borders have obtuse teeth.
Abdomen of male composed of six segments; that of female of seven distinct ones. (Sakai, 1938: 340)
Type locality: unknown.
Range: South Africa - Natal (Stebbing, 1905, 1910); Mauritius (Michel, 1964); Amirante Islands (Rathbun, 1911); Red Sea; Sri Lanka (Alcock, 1895a); Japan - Kagoshima Bay (Sakai, 1938a), Kii Nagashima, Kii Minabe, Kagoshima, Amami-Oshima, Yoron-jima, Ishigaki-jima and Hachijo-jima (Sakai, 1976a), Kushimoto (Miyake, 1983); Taiwan - Tan-shui (Sakai, 1938a), Chi-lung and Tan-shui (Lin, 1949); China - Paracel Island (Chen, 1975, Dai et al., 1978), Hainan Island and Paracel Islands (Dai & Yang, 1991); Singapore; Philippines; Palau (Takeda, 1973d); Caroline Islands - Yap (Sendler, 1923); Indonesia - Paternoster Island, Savu, east of Borneo, and Salibabu Island (Flipse, 1930), south off New Guinea, Pulau Pari and Pulau Belang Belang (Ng & Rahayu, 2000); New Caledonia; 33-125 m.