PODOPHTHALMIA. 



61 



Among the Maioids, inter- 

 esting from their appearance, 

 arc the group of spider crabs, 

 whose long and slender legs 

 are greatly disproportionate 

 to the body they have to sup- 

 port. These forms frequent 

 the bottom, walking slowly 

 and deliberately as though 

 they had scarcely strength to 

 move their attenuated mem- 

 bers. Some of these forms 

 keep their shell perfectly 

 clean, seeming to rely upon 

 their general resemblance to 

 the Sertularians and other 

 Hydrozoa, among which they 

 dwell, for protection. Others, 

 however, permit all sorts of 



foreign bodies, both animals and plants, to become attached to their bodies, so 

 that they are effectually concealed, and even when moving it seems as if a small 

 forest of sea-weed were being transplanted to another locality. To these spider 

 crabs the Macrocheira of Japan, the largest of all crustaceans, belongs. The 



FIG. 74. Maia squinado, natural size. 



FIG. 75. Leptopodia sagittaria, spider crab, half natural size. 



relative proportions of legs to body in this species can be seen from the following meas- 

 urements of a specimen captured at Yokohama in 1878, in which the legs extended to 

 a distance of twelve feet, while the carapax was sixteen inches long by twelve in 

 breadth. The largest specimen in any collection is said to be that in the British 

 Museum, which measures between the tips of the first pair of legs eighteen feet, though 

 larger specimens are occasionally taken, an old and trustworthy sea-captain telling the 

 writer of one taken in 1871 which spread twenty-two feet. 



