D. scutorum segmento basali angustiore quam occludens segmentum, longitudine ferè 4/5: tergorum parte inferiori duplo latiore quam occludens scutorum segmentum.
Scuta with the basal segment narrower than the occludent segment, and about four-fifths as long as it. Terga with the lower part twice as wide as the occludent segment of the scuta.
Mandibles with four teeth; segments of the three posterior cirri with eight pair of main spines.
Hab. — Madeira; attached to a rare Brachyourous Crab, discovered by the Rev R. T. Lowe. Very rare.
General Appearance. — Capitulum much compressed, sub-triangular, formed of very thin membrane; valves imperfectly calcified, and thin.
Scuta formed of two narrow plates placed at about an angle of 50° to each other, and united at the umbo by a non-calcified flexible portion. The primordial valve is situated at this point, but chiefly on the occludent segment. The occludent segment is about twice as wide and about one fifth longer than the basal segment, which latter is rather sharply pointed at its end. The occludent segment is slightly arched, a little narrowed in on the occludent margin close to the umbo; its upper end is broad and blunt; it runs throughout close to the edge of the orifice of the sack, and its longer axis is in the same line with that of the terga. Close to the umbones, on the under side of the basal segment, there is, on each valve, a longitudinal calcified fold, serving as a tooth.
Terga broad, with a deep notch corresponding to the apex of the occludent segment of the scuta; the part beneath the notch is of nearly the same width throughout, and is twice as broad as the occludent segment of the scuta; it has its basal angle very broad and blunt. The entire length of the terga equals two thirds of that of the occludent segment of the scuta; occludent margin simply and slightly curved.
The Carina is of nearly the same width throughout, with the upper part rather the widest, and the apex blunt; within convex; it extends up between three fourths of the length of the terga, terminating downwards in a fork with very sharp prongs, standing at right-angles to each other (fig. 8 a.) The fork, measured from point to point, is thrice as wide as, and measured across at the bottom of the prongs it is wider than, the widest upper part of the valve, — a resemblance being thus shown with the triangular notched disc in D. Grayii. The points of the prong extend under about one fourth of the length of the basal segments of the scuta.
Peduncle rather longer than the capitulum, which, in the largest specimen, was 2/10ths of an inch in length; peduncle narrow, close under the capitulum; membrane thin and structureless. The larger specimen had almost mature ova in the lamellæ.
Mouth. — Labrum with a few bead-like teeth on the crest, distant from each other even in the central part; palpi rather small, moderately clothed with bristles.
Mandibles, with four teeth; the inferior angle blunt and broad, showing, apparently, a rudiment of a fifth tooth; the first tooth is as far from the second, as is this from the inferior angle; second, third, and fourth teeth very blunt, whole inferior part of mandible not much narrowed. Maxillæ small, with a small notch under the three upper spines, which are followed by five or six pair, nearly as large as the upper spines.
Cirri. — First pair remote from the second; their rami nearly equal, and about one third of the length of the rami of the second cirrus; thickly clothed with bristles: rami of the second cirrus of equal thickness, but little shorter than those of the sixth cirrus; the three or four basal segments of the anterior ramus are thickly clothed with spines; the other segments, and all the segments on the third pair, resemble the segments of the three posterior pair. These latter are elongated, not protuberant, and support eight pairs of spines with very minute intermediate spines; those in the dorsal tufts are numerous and long.
Caudal Appendages nearly as long as the pedicels of the sixth cirrus; oval, moderately pointed, with their sides, for one fourth of their length, thickly clothed with long very thin spines.
Affinities. — In the form of the scuta and of the carina this species is most nearly allied to D. Grayii or D. pellucida, in the form of the terga to D. Warwickii.