280 



MARINE INVERTEBRATES 



C. antennarius, the rock-crab of the Pacific coast. This species 

 of the California coast inhabits rocky bottoms below low-water mark. 

 The carapace is three and a half inches long by five or six inches wide, 

 and dark purplish -brown in color. The chelse are marbled with purplish 

 spots and are nearly smooth. The distinguishing features of this crab 

 are its large and hairy antennae, the hirsute margins of its abdomen and 

 walking-feet, and the numerous hairs on the under side of its body. 



GENUS Jtfenippe 



M> mercenaria, the stone-crab. This species lives in deep holes 

 in the mud along the borders of creeks and estuaries, and also in crevices 

 between fragments of rock, in stone-heaps and other debris, and is 



Menippe mercenaria, the stone-crab ; male. 



found from South Carolina to Texas. These crabs are edible, and in 

 some localities are hunted for food, one manner of capturing them being 

 to thrust the hand and arm into their holes and drag them out, an opera- 

 tion attended with danger to the inexperienced hunter, who is likely to 

 be badly pinched. They are withdrawn with difficulty, as they offer a 

 strong resistance, bracing themselves with their claws against the sides 

 of their holes, and often bnld n firmly to the rocks that they are torn 



