94 ALLAN HANCOCK PACIFIC EXPEDITIONS VOL. 21 



shell associated with the sand in fully one-third of the cases. This cor- 

 responds with the findings of Crane (1937, p. 54), who records mud and 

 crushed shell bottom. 



Depth: An almost unbelievable bathymetric range of from 2 to 300 

 fathoms is shown by Velero III specimens, as compared with the pre- 

 viously accepted 21-60 fathom limitation (Crane, op. cit.). All but six 

 stations, however, are under 100 fathoms. 



Size and sex: The formidable series of over 1,500 individual speci- 

 mens has not been analyzed in this particular, except for data given 

 under measurements above. The largest specimen on record is an 11.5 

 mm male reported by Rathbun (1925). 



Breeding: Off the coast of southern California and northern Lower 

 California, where collecting has been concentrated, ovigerous females 

 have been recovered in every month of the year. There is a low in the 

 frequency curve in January and a high in August and September, with a 

 secondary rise in April. These data have not been corrected for the 

 probable greater collecting activity during the summer months. In the 

 Gulf of California, where spring collecting has been the rule, egg- 

 bearing females were encountered sparingly in January, February, and 

 March. 



Remarks: The great disparity existing between the sexes with respect 

 to the length of the anterior pair of legs, and particularly of the 

 chelipeds, led Rathbun to believe that she was dealing with two species 

 belonging to different genera. The males she described as Erileptus 

 spinosus, creating a new genus to receive them ; the females she described 

 as Anasimus rostratus, as noted in the synonymy above. Such an error 

 could hardly have occurred if both males and females had been present 

 in either type series. Fortunately, this lapse was discovered by Miss 

 Rathbun herself, while working over material sent her from the Venice 

 Marine Laboratory of the University of Southern California, the cor- 

 rection being made in subsequent papers. (Schmitt, 1921; Rathbun, 

 1925) 



For a species having its center of distribution off the southern Cali- 

 fornia-Lower California coast, Erileptus spinosus turns up in unexpected 

 places. The first intimation of its occurrence in the Gulf of California 

 was when the Zaca obtained fourteen specimens in a single dredge haul 

 in 60 fathoms off Punta Conception (Crane, 1937, p. 54), a record which 

 has been abundantly confirmed by Velero III. More recently, in 1939, 

 a dredge haul in 54 fathoms three miles south of the Ladrones Islands, 



