274 



ARACHNIDA XIPHOSURA 



water. I have not been able to watch the process more closely 

 because the animals lie so close to the sand, and all the append- 

 ages are concealed beneath the carapace. If touched during the 

 oviposition, they cease the operation and 

 wander to another spot or separate and re- 

 turn to deep water. I have never seen the 

 couples come 'entirely out of the water, 

 although they frequently come so close to 

 the shore that portions of the carapace are 

 uncovered." ] 



The developing ova and young larvae are 

 very hardy, and in a little sea-water, or still 

 better packed in sea-weed, will survive long 

 journeys. In this way they have been 

 transported from the Atlantic to the Pacific 

 coasts of the United States, and for a time 

 at any rate flourished in the western waters. 

 Three barrels full of them consigned from 

 Woods Holl to Sir E. Bay Lankester arrived 

 in England with a large proportion of larvae 

 alive and apparently well. 



According to Kishiuouye, L. longispina 

 spawns chiefly in August and between tide- 

 marks. " The female excavates a hole about 

 FIB. 157. -The markings ^5 cm <j e ep, an( j deposits eggs in it while the 



on the sand made by *- A 



the female Limuius male fertilises them. The female afterwards 

 when depositing e ggs burieg th and b eg i ns to excavate the next 



Towards the lower end a 



the round "nests" hole." A line of nests (Fig. 157) is thus 

 re'king^crrSg established which is always at right angles 

 apparently exhausted, to the shore-line. After a certain number 



SSnauiratZT of nests have been formed the female tires, 

 and the heaped up sand is not so prominent. 

 In each " nest " there are about a thousand eggs, placed first to 

 the left side of the nest and then to the right, from which Kishi- 

 nouye concludes that the left' ovary deposits its ova first and then 

 t/he right. Limuius rotundicauda and L. moluccanus do not bury 

 their eggs, but carry them about attached to their swimmerets. 



The 'egg is covered by a leathery egg-shell which bursts after 

 a certain time, and leaves the larva surrounded only by the 



1 Kingsley, loc. cit. - J. Coll. Tokyo, v., 1893, p. 53. 



