(A. Milne Edwards, 1873)
The front is not noticeably projecting. The carapace, chelipeds, sternal plastron and abdomen are smooth or granular or stippled but never sponge-like as in species of the subgenus Actites. The ambulatory legs are never with cristiform carinae on their anterior and posterior margins; they are smooth or granular and sometimes nodular. The ambulatory legs are shorter and more squarish; the merus of P4 is less than three times longer than broad. In adult males the extremity of the cheliped merus does not extend (or hardly) beyond the margin of the carapace. The first pleopod of the male is of a diverse shape but never terminates as a short rounded lobe; it is always furnished with more or less numerous setae, usually arranged in a row on one margin of the preapical part. The carapace, chelipeds and ambulatory legs have the surface very finely granular or punctate, conveying a more or less smooth aspect to the unaided eye; the regions of the carapace are feebly indicated; 2M is often undivided and, in all cases, never divided longitudinally throughout its length. The carapace is less convexed, more flattened longitudinally and transversely. The regions and the antero-lateral teeth have the surface finely granular and more distinct; 3M is entirely delineated and separated from 2M; these species are grey-red or brownish-orange mixed with white and with the ambulatory legs marked with transverse bands of white. On the dorsal face of the carapace region 1M is not or only feebly indicated. On the dorsal face of the carapace 1F+1M is continued with 2M and without trace of a groove separating them; the grooves separating 2M from 3M are very feeble; the regions 3M, 2L+3L and 5L+6L are not defined to the rear. The first pleopod of the male has been figured by Serène and Luom (1960, fig. 1 D). (Serène, 1984)
Type locality: New Caledonia.
Range: Red Sea (Nobili, 1906); Mauritius (Michel, 1964); Japan - Okinawa (Sakai, 1939), Kii Peninsula, Yoron-jima and Ishigaki-jima (Sakai, 1976a), Kii Nagashima and Kii Minabe (Muraoka, 1998), Ginowan, Okinawa (Shokita et al., 2000); Taiwan; China - Paracel Islands (Chen & Lan, 1978, Dai & Yang, 1991); Vietnam - Nha Trang (Serène & Luom, 1960); Philippines (Odhner, 1925); Palau (Takeda, 1976a); Indonesia - Ambon (de Man, 1887d); New Guinea - Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen (Odhner, 1925); New Caledonia - Poum (Takeda & Nunomura, 1976).