15 



BRACHYURA. 



Cyclometopa. 



FAM. : XaNTHIDAE. 



Gen. : PiLUMNUS, Leach, 1815. 



Dr. Ortmann, in his " Decapoden und Schizopoden der 

 Plankton-Expedition," p. 55, 1893, and in his Decapoden- 

 Krebse des Strassburger Museums, pt. 7, Zool. Jahrb., v. 7, 

 p. 433, 1894, has transferred this genus to a sub-fam. 

 Pilumninae of a new family Menippidae, which he includes in 

 the Xanthini, his third sub-group of the Cyclometopa. 

 Major Alcock, in his " Materials for a Carcinological Fauna 

 of India," No. 3, p. 69, 1898, divides the Cyclometopa into 

 four families, Cancridae, Xanthidae, Portuntdae, Telphusidae, 

 and makes the Pilumninae the sixth sub-famaly of the 

 Xanthidae, In No. 4 of the same work, in 1899, he adds the 

 Corystidae as a fifth family of the Cyclometopa. Miss 

 M. J. Rathbun, in 1900, substitutes *■ Pilumnidae'LQ2iQ)[i' ior 

 * Xanthidae Alcock ' (American Naturalist, vol. 34, p. 132). 



PiLUMNUS VERRUCOSIPES, Stimpson. 



1858. Pilumnus verrucosipes^ Stimpson, Prodromus descr. 



anim. evert. Exp. ad Pacificum Septentrionalem, 



Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Philad., Dec. 1857, p. 34. 

 1 88 1. Pilumnus verrucosipes, Miers, Ann. Nat. Hist., Ser. 



5, V. 8, p. 216, t. 13, f. 5. 

 1886. Pilumnus verrucosipeSy Miers, Challenger Brachyura, 



Reports, v. 17, p. 146. 



This little species has the carapace, except the frontal 

 margin, covered with a close felting of short hairs, from 

 among which arise singly or in groups longer cylindrical or 

 clavate setae. All the limbs are furnished with similar setae 

 and also with warts, of which Stimpson notices that the 

 chelipeds have nine on the fifth joint and five on the sixth. 

 This is true of the specimen from Mossel Bay, and concerning 

 four specimens from Goree Island, Senegambia, Miers remarks 

 that they agree in all respects with Stimpson's diagnosis. 



Stimpson's specimen was taken at the Cape in Simon's 

 Bay, on a sandy bottom, in eleven fathoms. The present 

 specimen was taken at Mossel Bay, 10 fathoms, on a large 

 ascidian locally known as "■ red bait." Dr. Gilchrist remarks 

 that the " muddy-looking carapace and limbs give a (pro- 

 tective ?) resemblance to the large ascidian on which it was 

 found." 



