(Herbst, 1801)
The antero-lateral margins of the carapace have, behind the exorbital angles, four teeth not separated by smaller intercalated teeth. The margins of these teeth are usually smooth but can be furnished with spinules or even denticles. The frontal lobes have the anterior margins strongly sinuous with very pronounced lobules. The carapace is broader and always more than 1.3 times the length. The ambulatory legs do not have both features mentioned above. The front extends well beyond the supraorbital angles; the lobes are quite narrow and clearly dentate. The submedian lobules of the front are usually separated from the lateral lobules by a deep notch. The chelipeds of the male have a dactylus bearing a proximal lobule near to the origin of the carina on its superior margin; the black colouration on the fixed finger hardly extends onto the palm in males. (Serène, 1984)
Type locality: East Indies.
Range: Red Sea - (Kossmann, 1877, Klunzinger, 1913), Abulat (Guinot, 1964b); Gulf of Aden - (Nobili, 1906b), Djibouti (Guinot, 1964b); Kenya - Mombasa and Shimori (Serène, 1984); Zanzibar (Lenz, 1905); Mozambique - Delagoa Bay (Barnard, 1947, 1950); Madagascar - Diégo-Suarez, Nosy Bé and Fort-Dauphin (Serène, 1984); Mauritius (Alcock, 1898, Michel, 1964); Seychelles - (Miers, 1884b), Aldabra Islands (Serène, 1984); Chagos Archipelago - Egmont (Rathbun, 1911); Persian Gulf - Bank of pearl-oysters (Stephensen, 1945); India; Laccadive Islands - Minicoy (Borradaile, 1902b); Andaman Islands (Alcock, 1898); Nicobar Islands (Alcock, 1898); Japan - Okinawa (Stimpson, 1907, Sakai, 1939), Amami-shoto and Okinawa (Sakai, 1976a), Yaeyama-retto (Miyake, 1983); Taiwan - Lan-Yü (Sakai, 1939, Lin, 1949); China - Hainan Island (Dai & Yang, 1991); Indonesia - Edam Island (de Man, 1888d); Australia - Queensland; New Caledonia - Ile des Pins (Takeda & Nunomura, 1976); Mariana Islands (Holthuis, 1953); Gilbert Islands (Rathbun, 1907, Holthuis, 1953); Samoa - Upolu (Alcock, 1898); Hawaiian Islands - Honolulu (Rathbun, 1906); Line Islands - Palmyra (Edmondson, 1923); Tahiti (Forest & Guinot, 1961); Tuamotu Archipelago (Nobili, 1907, Rathbun, 1907).