peduncle, spine separated from and slightly ex- 

 ceeding lamella; a weak spine (basicerite) below 

 near base of scale. Third maxillipeds with ter- 

 minal article hairy; slightly exceeding antennal 

 peduncle. 



First legs strongly chelate, very unequal. Larger 

 chela thick; outer and inner margins deeply 

 notched near base of fingers; upper and lower 

 surfaces with irregular shallow grooves; dactyl 

 broad, heavy, strongly curved, with large basal 

 tooth. Small chela sexually dimorphic; in male 

 broad, elongate; proximal dorsal area of palm 

 bounded by an impressed line, upper margin 

 notched distally; dactyl flattened and expanded 

 on outer surface; opposed edges of fingers keeled, 

 closely fitting, fringed by dense hairs. Fingers 

 of small chela in both sexes weaker, less curved, 

 and more hairy than in large chela ; carpus short ; 

 merus smooth. Second legs slender, weakly che- 

 late; carpus subdivided with joints diminishing 

 in length as follows (numbered from proximal 

 end) : 1, 2, 5, 4, 3. Third to fifth legs with simple 

 dactyls. 



Abdomen compressed, smooth, tapering. Telson 

 with subparallel sides and rounded tip; dorsal 

 surface with two pairs of movable spines, first 

 pair at about midlength, second at a little less 

 than three-fourths length; a pair of spines at 

 each posterolateral corner, medial spine longest; 

 distal margin heavily setose, a pair of anal tuber- 

 cles beneath with accompanying cups on uropods 

 forming locking devices. Uropodal exopods with 

 lateral border ending in a fixed spine flanked 

 medially by a longer movable spine. 



Measurements. — Length of body : male, 40 mm. ; 

 female, 50 mm. 



Color. — Dark translucent green, slightly flushed 

 with purple on sides of carapace ; white markings 

 on chelipeds; walking legs pale red; tips of 

 uropods blue with narrow border of orange on 

 distal margin, outer blade with patch of red just 

 above blue, and a narrow white border; articular 

 surfaces and joints of abdominal segments, and a 

 small streak along cervical groove, white. 



Habitat. — Lives among broken shells and stones 

 or in burrows in mud among shells; water's edge 

 to 16. fathoms. 



Type locality. — Amelia Island, Nassau County, 

 Fla. (Holthuis, 1959, restr.). 



Known range. — Near Hatteras, N.C., to Aransas 

 County, Tex.; Colon, Panama; through West 

 Indies to Iguape, Sao Paulo, Brazil; Bermuda 

 (Holthuis, 1956). 



Remarks. — Brooks and Herrick (1892) gave a 

 good colored figure of this species (plate 2), as 

 well as a series of figures of segmenting eggs and 

 developing larval stages. Because the material 

 they studied originated from both North Carolina 

 and the Bahamas, there is some doubt as to its 

 identity, but a total of four larval stages were 

 illustrated. 



This is the largest snapping shrimp found in 

 the Carolinas. It is nearly as abundant as A. 

 normanni. 



Ovigerous females have been taken through 

 much of the annual cycle in various localities: 

 February and April in Surinam (Holthuis, 1959) ; 

 March in Panama and Texas; April and May in 

 Louisiana and Florida; July in North Carolina; 

 August and September on the Gulf Coast; Octo- 

 ber to January in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and 

 Bonaire. 



Alpheus armillatus Milne Edwards. Banded snapping 

 shrimp 



Figure 55 



Alpheus armillatus H. Milne Edwards, 1837, p. 364. — Verrill, 

 1922, p. 73, text-figs. 5a, 6b ; pi. 20, fig. 4b ; pi. 21, figs. 4, 4a ; 

 pi. 26, figs. 1-ld; pi. 23, fig. 4; pi. 27, figs. 1-ls (rev.). 



Crangon armillatua: Hay and Shore, 1918, p. 386, text-fig. 9; 

 pi. 27, fig. 1. Schmitt 1935a, p. 142. 



Recognition characters. — Rostrum in form of a 

 narrow raised crest from base to tip, projecting 

 beyond orbital hoods, widening abruptly just be- 

 hind eyes into a triangular area with borders 

 slightly concave and distinctly limiting rostro- 

 orbital depressions, slightly overhanging depres- 

 sions in adult specimens. Carapace compressed; 

 orbital hoods prominent in front with a slight 

 obtuse anterior lobe, but without spine or denticle, 

 and with a strong emargination below eyes. Eyes 

 entirely covered by carapace. Antennules with 

 stylocerite large, scalelike, not very acute, and not 

 reaching to end of basal antennular article ; second 

 article longer than third ; inner flagellum filiform ; 

 outer flagellum thickened in about proximal half. 

 Antennal scale with a strong terminal spine equal 

 to or extending beyond antennal peduncle, scale 

 distinctly curved outward in distal two-thirds; 

 a small spine ( basicerite ) near base of scale. Third 



MARINE DECAPOD CRUSTACEANS OF THE CAROLINAS 



67 



