102 Bulletin, Vanderhilt Marine Museum, Vol. II 



Synonymy. — Mithraculus forceps A. Milne Edwards, Crust. Reg. 

 Mex., p. 109, pi. 23, fig. 1, 1875. 



Mithraculus hirsutipes Kinqsley, Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 

 20, p. 147, 1879. 



Mithrax forceps Miers, Kept. Voy. Challenger Zool., vol. 17, pp. 87, 88, 



1886.— Rathbun, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 15, p. 269, 1892. 

 Mithrax hirsutipes Miers, op. cit., p. 87. 



Mithrax forceps hirsutipes Verrill, Trans. Conn. Arts and Sci., vol. 

 13, p. 409, text fig. 42, pi. 24, figs. 4-6, 1908. 



Mithrax (Mithraculus) forceps Rathbun, Bull. 129, U. S. Nat. Mus., 

 p. 431, pi. 156, 1925; Rapport Betreffende een voorloopig onder- 

 zoek naar den toestand van de visscherij, Kolonie Curagao, p. 345, 

 1907 ; Bijdragen tot de dierkunde, natura artis magistra te Am- 

 sterdam, 23E Afl., 1924, p. 20. 



Genus: STENOCIONOPS (Leach Mss.) Desmarest. 

 Stenocionops furcata (Olivier). 



Plate 31. 



Name : Horned crab. Decorator crab. 



Type : Olivier did not cite his type locality ; his type, if extant, is 

 probably in the Paris Museum. 



Diagnostic characters: The ''horned crab" is one of the earliest 

 recorded American spider crabs, having been figured by Hughes as 

 long ago as 1750, in his ''Natural History of the Barbados." It is 

 found from Georgia southward through the West Indies to Brazil. 

 Although relatively abundant in the coral reefs, its nodular body and 

 sponge and seaweed clothing prove an effective camouflage. The 

 sharp, divergent rostral horns, prominent preorbital spine and pres- 

 ence of four long spines on each side on the lateral margin ; a promi- 

 nent median gastric, cardiac and intestinal spine, also several sec- 

 ondary nodules on the dorsal surface of the carapace serve to readily 

 distinguish this species from its allies. 



Distribution: Known from Georgia southward throughout the 

 "West Indies to Bahia, Brazil. Also recorded by Miers from Cape 

 Colony. 



Material examined: One large female taken in 2 fathoms, Port 

 Tanamo, Cuba, February 3, 1924. 



