(H. Milne Edwards, 1834)
The carapace is entirely invested with a felt or fine down covering the furrows as well as the areolas of the regions. 2M is divided longitudinally into 2 parts; the external branch is entire. The carapace is about 1.55 times broader than long; its postero-lateral margins are strongly concave; the carapace is entirely covered by a fine, close-cropped, maroon, velvet felt only leaving exposed the apices of the granules; the areolas of the regions are separated by narrow furrows. The chelipeds have the fingers relatively thick and short with their distal extremities enlarged and with hoof-shaped excavations; the black pigmentation on the fixed finger of the male chelipeds hardly extends backwards onto the base of the palm. (Serène, 1984)
Type locality: Indian Ocean.
Range: Red Sea - (Klunzinger, 1913), Djeddah (Odhner, 1925); Gulf of Aden - Djibouti (Odhner, 1925); Indian Ocean (H. Milne Edwards, 1834, Guinot, 1976); Kenya - Mombasa (Serène, 1984); Tanzania - Dar es Salaam (Ortmann, 1894), Zanzibar (Lenz, 1905), Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam (Odhner, 1925); Mozambique - Ibo (Hilgendorf, 1879, Odhner, 1925); South Africa - Durban (Odhner, 1925, Barnard, 1950); Ile Europa (Lenz, 1910, Odhner, 1925); Mayotte (Guinot, 1958); Madagascar - Tamatave and Antongil Bay (Odhner, 1925), Fort-Dauphin (Serène, 1984); Iles Glorieuses (Serène, 1984); Seychelles - Aldabra Islands (Guinot, 1964b, Serène, 1984), Praslin and Coëtivy Islands (Rathbun, 1911); Réunion (Odhner, 1925); Mauritius (Alcock, 1898, Bouvier, 1915b, Odhner, 1925, Michel, 1964); Laccadive Islands (Alcock, 1898); Maldives (Guinot, 1962b); Palk Strait (Alcock, 1898); Andaman Islands (Alcock, 1898); Nicobar Islands (Alcock, 1898, Odhner, 1925); Sumatra - Banda Aceh and Padang (Odhner, 1925); Japan - Okinawa (Stimpson, 1907), Okinawa and Amami-Oshima (Stimpson, 1907), Okinawa (Sakai, 1939), Hachijo-jima (Sakai, 1954), Yoron and Ishigaki-jima (Sakai, 1976a), Ishigaki-jima (Miyake, 1983), Ginowan, Okinawa (Shokita et al., 2000), Kagoshima; Taiwan (Sakai, 1939, 1976, Lin, 1949); China - Hong Kong (Stimpson, 1907), Paracel Island (Chen & Lan, 1978), Hainan Island, Paracel Islands, and Fujian (Dai & Yang, 1991); Singapore; Philippines - Zamboanga (Miers, 1886, Odhner, 1925); Sulu Sea (Dana, 1852); Balabac Strait - Mangsi Island (Dana, 1852); Palau (Sendler, 1923, Odhner, 1925, Takeda & Hayashi, 1973); Indonesia - Edam Island (de Man, 1887d), Edam Island, Noordwachter Island, and Timor (Odhner, 1925); Papua New Guinea - Ninigo Group, Bismarck Archipelago, Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land, Vlavolo, New Britain, and New Ireland (Odhner, 1925), Nissan Island (Sendler, 1923); Solomon Islands - Florida Islands (Odhner, 1925); Australia - Cape York (Odhner, 1925); Vanuatu - Santo (Takeda & Nunomura, 1976); New Caledonia; Caroline Islands - Truk and Ponape (Odhner, 1925); Marshall Islands - Jaluit, Ebon and Namu (Odhner, 1925); Fiji (Dana, 1852, Odhner, 1925); Samoa (Dana, 1852, Odhner, 1925); Tonga - Foua and Hapai (Odhner, 1925); Hawaiian Islands - Oahu (Rathbun, 1906); Tuamotu Archipelago - Makatea (Sendler, 1923, Odhner, 1925).