70 A HISTORY OF RECENT CRUSTACEA 



having deep red patches and interlacing lines. The 

 following pairs of feet are yellowish with faint red lines, 

 the last pair being marbled with red, its joints very broad, 

 and the last of them thin and membranous. By -some 

 writers this species is called Goniosoma cruciferum (Fabri- 

 cius). They would displace de Haaii's Charyldis, not 

 because of any pre-occupation of that name, which would 

 have afforded a just reason, but because a different name 

 Charybdea had been previously employed, which is no 

 reason at all for cancelling Charybdis. Again, they would 

 displace the earliest specific name cruciatiis as inappro- 

 priate, whereas, they argue, the name cruciferum, given 

 by Fabricius, is in accordance with the great pale cross 

 marked upon the carapace. It is true that Herbst pro- 

 bably tortured the meaning of cruciatus, but it is quite 

 clear that he intended it to bear the sense of cruciferum, 

 and even if he had chosen to regard his crab as fixed to 

 a cross instead of regarding the cross as fixed on the crab, 

 it would not have justified any tampering with the name 

 and the rights of priority. It is perhaps this species that 

 suggested the story found in the old writers that on one 

 occasion, to calm the sea, Xavier threw a crucifix into it, 

 and that this was afterwards restored to him by a crab. 



Sathynectes, Stimpson, 1871, with a name that means 

 ' the deep swimmer,' is closely akin to Charybdis, but its 

 antero-lateral margins have only five teeth, the hinder- 

 most of which is very prominent, being twice as long as 

 those which precede it. Thranltes velox, of which in 

 1876 and 1881 Professor Carl Bovallius gave a detailed 

 description, illustrated by numerous excellent figui-es, has 

 since been found to belong to Stimpson's Bathynectes. 

 The detailed description is in Swedish, the excellent 

 figures are in a language which all but the blind can read 

 with ease. The species has been identified with Stimpson's 

 Bathijnectes longispina, 1871, but Canon Norman has 

 recently made it probable that the priority rests with 

 Portunus superbus, 0. G. .Costa, and that the name will, 

 therefore, be BatJtynectes superbus, the species having ' a 

 range apparently co-extensive with the North Atlantic,' 



