Paramedaeus simplex

(A. Milne Edwards, 1873)

The anterior one-third of the carapace is rather strongly sunken; the dorsal surface is well separated into regions which are more or less eroded and not markedly convex; the regions are thickly covered with small granules, and those on 2M are beaded to form short transverse rows; 2M is imperfectly subdivided by a longitudinal indistinct furrow, the inner areolet of 2M is confluent with 1M; an areola just outside of 2M is convex and represents the united 2 and 3L; the areolae 4, 5 and 6L are distinctly demarcated; of those areolae, 4L is low, transverse and more or less confluent with the third antero-lateral tooth, while 5L is large; a transverse region at the gastro-cardiac separation is deeply sunken; 1P is convex fore and aft, being more or less confluent with the postero-lateral regions; just behind the middle of 1P and in front of 2P is a small transverse region; 2P is not distinctly incised in the middle. The front is rather produced beyond the orbits, being cut into two lobes by a median narrow V-shaped sinus; each lobe is obliquely truncated and angulated at the median sinus, bearing a rather prominent, angulated lateral angle. The supraorbital angle is small but very distinctly isolated from the lateral angle of the front.
The antero-lateral border of the carapace is armed with four teeth that are rather tuberculated and weakly curved upwards; the first is the smallest of the series and at the much lower level, its anterior border being confluent with the granulated subhepatic region and then with the anterior angle of the buccal cavern; each of the anterior and posterior slopes of the second and third is provided with one or two large accessory granules; behind the summit of the fourth the postero-lateral border of the carapace is strongly convergent.
The chelipeds are unequal in both sexes; the upper border of the merus is armed with a series of several tubercular granules; the outer surface of the carpus is eroded with many small depressions and minute granules, its inner angle being tuberculated; the outer surface of the palm is for its greater part smooth; in reality, however, it bears two or three linear, low longitudinal prominences; the outer upper and inner upper surfaces are ornamented each with a longitudinal shallow furrow that is also ornamented with many short transverse depressions; the inner upper surface of the palm is armed with several large granules that are obtuse in the larger specimens and conical in the smaller ones. The fingers are short, high and irregularly toothed, the tips being pointed and crossed, the upper border of the movable finger is rather prominently crested; the colour of the immovable finger is not extended onto the palm.
The ambulatory legs are short; the upper border of the merus is crested; in the first three pairs each of the crests is entire, but in the last pair it bears some indistinct depressions and is armed with some conical granules near its proximal end. (Takeda, 1972a)

Type locality: Madagascar and Upolu.
Range: Red Sea (Balss, 1934b); Somalia - Hafun (Guinot, 1962c); Kenya - Lamu Channel (Serène, 1984); Madagascar - (A. Milne Edwards, 1873, Balss, 1934b), Nosy Bé (Serène, 1984); Seychelles (Rathbun, 1911); Amirante (Rathbun, 1911, Serène, 1984); Coëtivy (Rathbun, 1911); Mauritius (Guinot, 1967a, c); Saya de Malha Bank (Rathbun, 1911); Chagos Archipelago (Ward, 1942b); Japan - Ishigaki-jima, Okinawa (Takeda, 1972a); Philippines - Batangas (Serène & Umali, 1972); Palau (Takeda, 1976a); Indonesia - Ternate (de Man, 1902a); Fiji; Hawaiian Islands - (Edmondson, 1925), Hilo (Rathbun, 1906); Samoa - Upolu (A. Milne Edwards, 1873).

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