Color. — Gaily colored. Anterior half of cara- 

 pace and a broad median stripe extending to 

 posterior margin, dark purplish brown, legs a 

 lighter tint of same color; front margined with 

 brownish orange. Sides of carapace, upper sur- 

 face of chelipeds, dactyls, bases of legs, and a 

 narrow band on distal margin of other articles, 

 light yellow. Tubercles on upper half of cheli- 

 peds, dark blue; on lower half, yellow. Under- 

 parts of body and chelipeds, white, fingers brown. 

 Rathbun (1930a) gives another detailed color 

 description. 



Habitat.— The species has been found in a 

 variety of situations: under flat rocks above the 

 watermark, in seaweed, sponges, brackish ponds, 



Figure 164. — Eriphia gonagra (Fabricius) ; A, entire first 

 pleopod, 0.75 mm. indicated ; B, tip of first pleopod, 0.25 

 mm. indicated ; C, tip of second pleopod, 0.75 mm. 

 indicated; Menippe mercenaria (Say); D, tip of first 

 pleopod ; E, tip of second pleopod ; 5 mm. indicated. 



Figure 165. — Eriphia gonagra (Fabricius). Male in dor- 

 sal view, walking legs of left side not shown, 10 mm. 

 indicated. 



tide pools, and on coral reefs. Shoreline to shal- 

 low water of uncertain limits. 



Type locality. — Jamaica. 



Known range. — North Carolina to Argentine 

 Patagonia. 



Remarks. — Ovigerous females are known from 

 March to September in various parts of the West 

 Indies and southern Florida; in October from 

 Santa Catarina, and February from Bahia, Brazil 

 (Rathbun, 1930a, in part). 



Genus Menippe de Haan, 1833 



Rathbun, 1930a, p. 472. 



Menippe mercenaria (Say). Stone crab 



Figures 164 D, E ; 166 

 Cancer mercenaria Say, 1818, p. 448. 



Menippe mercenaria: Hay and Shore, 1918, p. 439. pi. 35, fig. 

 8.— Rathbun, 1930a, p. 472, text-fig. 78, pis. 191-193 (rev.). 



Recognition characters. — Carapace transversely 

 oval, approximately two-thirds as long as wide, 

 convex, nearly smooth to unaided eye, minutely 

 granulate and punctate. Anterolateral border 

 divided into four lobes : first two wide, third wide 

 but dentiform, fourth much narrower and denti- 

 form. Front with a median notch and a broad 

 trilobulate lobe on each side. Orbital border 

 thick, fissures indistinct. 



Chelipeds large and heavy, unequal, nearly 

 smooth; inside surface of hands with a patch of 

 fine, oblique, parallel striae serving as a stridulat- 

 ing organ and adapted for playing against thick 

 edee of second and third anterolateral teeth and 



MARINE DECAPOD CRUSTACEANS OF THE CAROLINAS 



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