HISTORY OF THE AMEHICAN ASTACIDil. 



179S. The first North American sj^ecies made known was described 

 by Fabriciiis, in his Suppknienium Eniomolo(j}(v HijHtcmaiicce. It was 

 called A-sfaciis Bariomi, and communicated by Professor Smith Barton. 

 The description is very short, and the locality not given, but it is prob- 

 ably the species more recently determined as ^1. Barfouii by American 

 naturalists. Bosc, Hist. Nat. des Crust., Suites a Buftbn an x. (1802), 

 descriljes in few words, repeated by Latreille, Hist. Nat. des Crust., VI. 

 240, Astacus Barfouii, which he collected in America. The figure given 

 by him is very bad, and it is impossible to identify his species. 



1817. Eafinesque, in the American Monthly Magazine, II. 42, Novem- 

 ber, describes four species, — Astacus limosim, fossor, ciUaris, and jmsiUus. 

 His descriptions are likewise very short, but the locality is given, 

 and it will therefore be possible to determine them exactly by further 



mvestigations. 



A. limosiis is perhajis A. affinis Say, and A. fossor the species de- 

 scribed by me as A. obscurus, if it has burrowmg habits. A. ciliaris is 

 apparently A. Bartonii, but the dimensions given by Eafinesque are, as 

 for the foregoing species, excessive. The ciliated legs do not belong 

 exclusively to this species. I think A. pusillits does not dift'er from A. 

 ciliaris. The difterences given are not im2Dortant, — "the rostrum oval 

 acute," " the hands oblong, dotted," " entirely fulvous brown " ; in A. 

 ciUaris, " the rostrum short, acute," " the hands short, thick dotted," 

 " entirely olivaceous brown." Perhaps A. pusi/lus is the second form of 

 the male ; still, cilige always occur on its second pair of legs, and Eafi- 

 nesque would have mentioned the fact in this instance no less than in 

 A. ciliaris. 



One month after the appearance of the account of Eafinesque, Th. 

 Say, m Journ. Acad. Phil., I. Part I. 1G7, December, described two 

 species, — A. BaHonii and affinis. His descriptions are good, and suf- 

 ficient to designate the species. A supplement is given, 1. c. 443, con- 

 cerning the variation of their armature and the proportion of the 

 hands in A. Barionii ; but here perhaps Mr. Say speaks of a different 

 species. Astacus Barionii Say is probably the species described by 

 Fabricius, and Astacus affinis seems to be Astacus limosus Eafinesque. 



