Figure 160. — PUumnus floridanus Stimpson. A, animal in 

 dorsal view, walking legs of left side not shown ; B, 

 large chela in frontal view ; 5 mm. indicated. 



Habitat. — In North Carolina this species has 

 been taken from an offshore reef (Pearse and 

 Williams, 1951) and has been found in sponges. 

 Rathbun (1930a) listed it as taken from rocks, 

 grass, and a variety of bottoms. Low-tide mark 

 to about 80 fathoms. 



Type locality. — Tortugas, [Fla.]. 



Known range. — Off Cape Lookout, N.C., 

 through eastern Gulf of Mexico, and Yucatan 

 Channel, to Honduras; through West Indies to 

 Venezuela. 



Remarks. — This species is not common north of 

 Florida. Ovigerous females are known from 

 March to August in Florida (Rathbun, 1930a, in 

 part) and they have been taken in February in 

 North Carolina. 



PUumnus lacteus Stimpson. Small hairy crab 



Figures 157E, 161 



PUumnus lacteus Stimpson, 1871a, p. 142 Hay and Shore, 



1918, p. 440, pi. 35, flg. 3.— Rathbun, 1930a, p. 511, pi. 205, flgs. 

 1-2 (rev.). 



Recognition characters. — Carapace about three- 

 fourths as long as wide, covered with short velvet- 

 like pubescence easily rubbed off (and often is), 

 nearly smooth, sparse tubercles almost invisible 



through hairy coating; a row of five tubercles 

 paralleling anterolateral and orbital margins, 

 others scattered. Anterolateral margins with four 

 anteriorly directed teeth, first or outer orbital 

 small. Front depressed, deeply notched in middle, 

 and with a smaller notch near eye. Orbital mar- 

 gin occasionally a bit uneven but not tuberculate. 



Chelipeds dissimilar in size but otherwise 

 nearly alike, stout, setose, and plumose-hairy, 

 somewhat tuberculate above, but naked and 

 polished below and on ventral half or two-thirds 

 of both inner and outer surfaces of chelae ; merus 

 with two similar curved spines on upper margin 

 distally; carpus with a stout spine on inner angle. 



Measurements. — Carapace: male, length, 12 

 mm.; width, 15 mm. 



Color. — Gray or pinkish, with plumose hairs 

 whitish or cream colored; hands and tips of legs 

 light red. 



Habitat. — This crab may be found by a careful 

 search of wharf pilings about the Beaufort, N.C., 

 harbor area, but is rarely taken in dredge hauls. 

 It has been taken from buoys both in sounds and 

 at sea in South Carolina (Lunz, 1937a). Rathbun 

 (1930a) reported it from a variety of situations 

 farther south. Near low-tide mark to about 8 

 fathoms. 



Figure 161. — PUumnus lacteus Stimpson. A, animal in 

 dorsal view ; B, large chela in frontal view ; 5 mm. in- 

 dicated. 



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