FOSSIL CRABS. 



315 



shocks and sounds. When alarmed, lobsters are said to 

 cast off their large claws, but the latter are again re- 

 newed. It is more probable, however, that the claws are 

 torn off during their contests with each other. Hensen 

 found that crabs and shrimps liv- 

 ing in water do not notice sounds 

 made in the air. The hairs about 

 the mouth are the organs of tac- 

 tile sense, and have been made by 

 Hensen to vibrate to certain sounds. 

 The eyes may be greatly devel- 

 oped in shrimps living at great 

 depths ; thus Thalascaris, a shrimp 

 living near the bottom of the At- 

 lantic Ocean, is remarkable for the 

 large size of its eyes. In the spe- 

 cies of Alpheus, which live in holes 



in sponges, etc., the eyes are small. Fig ^_ Anthrapalaemon ffra . 

 The eves of the blind Willemcesia, <*as. Natural size. After Meek 



J and Worthen. 



dredged at great depths by the 



"Challenger" Expedition, are rudimentary, though in the 

 young the eyes are better developed. This is the case with 

 the young of the blind craw-fish Cambarus pdlucidus (Tell- 

 kampf, Fig, 268) of Mammoth and other caves. The fact 

 that the eyes in the young are larger than in the adult indi- 

 cates that this species has descended from other forms living 

 in neighboring streams, and well endowed with the sense 

 of sight. The eye (Fig. 269) of the blind craw-fish differs 

 from that of the normal species in its smaller size, conical 

 form, the absence of a cornea (indicated by the dotted lines 

 in .4), the pigment cells being white instead of black, and 

 by differences in the form of the brain, that of the blind 

 species being fuller on the sides, and wanting the conical 

 projection in front. 



Subclass 2. Palaocarida.This subclass is proposed for 

 the king-crab (Limnlus], the only survivor of a large num- 

 ber of fossil Crustacea, which dominated the Silurian seas 

 and became mostly extinct in the Carboniferous period. 



