Figure 166. — Menippe merecnaria (Say). Male in dorsal view, approximately X 0.6 (after Rathbun, 1884). 



outer suborbital tootli ; dactyl of major chela with 

 a large basal tooth, and immovable finger with a 

 large subbasal tooth; fingers of minor chela with 

 numerous small teeth. Walking legs stout, hairy 

 distally. 



Mi asurement8. — Female: length of carapace, 79 

 mm., width, 116 mm.; length of cheliped, 155 mm. 

 This is the largesl xanthid species in the area. 



Color. — Young individuals dark purplish blue, 

 very young always with a white spot on carpus. 

 Older individuals become a dark brownish red 

 more or less mottled and spotted with dusky 

 gray ; lingers dark. 



Habitat. — The young resort to deeper channels 

 of saltier estuaries where they live under shell 



fragments. Young have also been taken from 

 buoys in South Carolina (Lunz, 1937a). On at- 

 taining a width of about one-half inch, they ap- 

 parently move to shallower water and ma}' be 

 found among oyster shells, on rocks, pilings, and 

 about jetties. (In northwest Florida, M. mer- 

 cenaria apparently prefers turtle grass (Th-a7assm 

 testudinum) flats (Wass, 1955).) Here they live 

 until they have attained nearly full size when they 

 may move to some shoal and make burrows just 

 below low-tide mark. Such burrows are about f> 

 inches in diameter and extend for \'2 to 20 inches. 

 The crabs can be taken from burrows by hand 

 if the collector keeps his hand against the upper 

 wall of the hole, and a number of specimens for 



184 



FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



