130 The hish Naturalist. July, 



That the species reaches a greater size than is here indicated 

 is evident, as, according to Professor Cams, the Mediterranean 

 specimens range to 22 centimetres, or about 8j inches in 

 length.^ In spite of their size, the limbs of this crab are 

 comparativel}' fragile, breaking off quite readil}' between the 

 second and third segments. 



As alread}' mentioned, the Cork specimen is decorated with 

 the various external " messmates" so commonly found on the 

 larger kinds of crabs. It is abundantl}^ studded with young 

 individuals of the bivalve shell Anomia, especially amongst 

 the spines on the sides of the carapace, while on the legs are 

 numbers of worm tubes (Serpula) in various stages of growth ; 

 both of these can be seen distinctly in the plate. Less obvious 

 tenants are various kinds of Polyzoa, some of which are very 

 minute. Mr. A. R. Nichols has examined these, and finds 

 the following species represented : — Me??ib7-a7i7p07'a cate7iula7ia, 

 M. Fle7)ii7ig77, Bicella7ia a'liata, Micropore! la ciliata, and 

 3f7(cro7ieIla Peachii, all more or less common forms. As well 

 as these there are several colonies of a prettj^ Hydroid, which 

 Miss Stephens has identified as Sert7darella Gayi (Lamouroux), 

 a species found in fairly deep w^ater off the Irish coast. 



So far as I can ascertain there are no published records of 

 the occurrence of Pa7'077iola Cuvie7i in British waters. That 

 it is an indigenous species in the souih-western part of the 

 Irish marine area has been recently proved b}^ Mr. S. W. 

 Kemp and his colleagues of the Fisheries Branch of the 

 Department of Agriculture,- when they had the good fortune 

 to capture specimens during dredging operations last Sep- 

 tember at a depth of from 627 to 728 fathoms. The actual 

 localit}' is about 68 miles off the south-west coast (L,at. N., 

 50^42': Long. W., 11^ 18'), and the crabs were found asso- 

 ciated with the Tuft-coral {Lophohelia prolifera), a species 

 indigenous to the deep w^aters of north-western Europe. This 

 interesting discovery furnishes a record in the bathymetric 

 distribution of Paro7nola Ciivieri, as the lowest previously 



^ Carus, Prodr. Fauna Mtdit., I, p. 499. 



^ Mt. E. W. L. Holt has kindly given me permission to make use of 

 the "Fisheries" observations of this species. 



