(Kubo, 1955)
Diagnosis:
Frontal horns with three dorsal teeth. Anterior margin of carapace between small, spiniform rostrum and frontal horns without teeth. Carapace without spines behind cervical groove. Six or seven transverse grooves on second to fifth abdominal somites, all reaching to base of pleura.
Type:
Type locality: "about 8 miles off Shimokawaguchi(Shimizu city), Kôchi Pref., Japan". Holotype male "in the biological museum of Kôchi Prefecture Women's University".
Geographical Distribution:
Indo-West Pacific region: Madagascar (N.W. coast near Majunga, and S.E. coast near FortDauphin), Mauritius, Réunion, Japan (off Pacific coast of centraland southern Japan from Kii Peninsula to the south coast of Shikoku Island; Bonin Islands).
Habitat and Biology:
Depth range from 40 to 200 m. According to Crosnier and Jouannic (1973: 13) the species seems to prefer rocky substrates.
Size:
Maximum total body length 24 cm; usually not more than 20 cm. Carapace length 6 to 9 cm.
Interest to Fisheries:
At present none. Specimens are occasionally taken in lobster pots and trap nets; the habitat evidently is inaccessible to trawls. Sekiguchi and Okubo (1986: 21) reported an annual catch of 4 to 41 specimens (between October and April) of this species in Mie Prefecture, Japan. Many of the specimens were placed in the several public aquaria in Japan.