194 Transactions. — Zoology. 



spinulose. One or more of the abdominal segments usually 

 with a series of spinules on the anterior dorsal margin. 



1. Munida subrugosa, White. 

 Miers, Cat. N.Z. Crust., p. 68. 



The synonymy is given by Henderson, Eep. Anom. Chall. 

 Exped., p. 124. 



This is a widely spread species, having been recorded in 

 the " Challenger " Anomura from four localities in Patagonia, 

 from Monte Video, and from the Falkland Islands. Miers 

 notes the British Museum specimens as from the Auckland 

 Islands. I have taken it with the dredge in Otago Harbour 

 and Paterson Inlet in from 6 to 10 fathoms of water, and 

 occasionally it has come up Otago Harbour in countless 

 swarms, creeping up to the steps of the jetties and on to 

 the submerged stones under the piers. It always appears to 

 keep near the bottom, and is rather slow and sluggish in its 

 movements till pursued, when it jerks itself rapidly back- 

 wards. 



I am strongly inclined to think that the forms described 

 by Leach as Grimothea gregaria are, as Miers suggests, only 

 a developmental stage in the life- history of Munida — a stage 

 intended for the dispersion of the species. Filhol (Miss, de 

 rile Campbell, p. 426) seeks to separate the New Zealand 

 form from the Chilian, and describes it under the name of 

 Grimothea novce-zealandics. But it seems to me useless to 

 found specific distinctions on the characters of immature 

 forms, and we know almost nothing of the life -history of 

 these Crustacea. 



Grimothea occurs in our seas, especially in the summer 

 months, in enormous shoals, which frequently colour large 

 areas a bright-red. These shoals consist often of immense 

 numbers of individuals, of which such masses are thrown up 

 on the beaches as at times to create a stench. The animals 

 swim backwards in a jerking manner by whipping the tail-tin 

 under the body, while at the same time they hold the cheli- 

 pedes extended straight out in front of them. They consti- 

 tute a very common article of food for both fishes and sea- 

 birds. Even in midwinter, when none have been seen 

 swimming about, I have got them in hundreds in the 

 stomachs of red- and blue-cod and hapuku. Though I have 

 examined hundreds of individuals I have always found the 

 sexual appendages in a more or less undeveloped condition. 

 Mtmida has the exo-skeleton rather hard, and exhibiting con- 

 siderable complexity of imbricating scales and of spines on 

 its surface, but, with the exception of its softer and thinner 

 texture, Grimothea has the same spines and markings. The 

 difference in the length and development of the external 



