Boone, Crustacea, Cruises of ''Eagle" and ''Ara," 1921-28 109 



Distribution : This crab has been known since 1756 and has been 

 found from North Carolina southward to Brazil, including stations 

 off Yucatan and several of the islands of the West Indies ; bathymet- 

 ric occurrence, shallow water to 45 fathoms. 



Material examined: Twenty-one specimens, males and females, 

 taken in dragnet, Cardenas, Cuba, March 5, 1928; one rather large 

 female from the south coast of Cuba, February 19, 1923. 



Color : Mottled moss-green, with splotches of darker bottle green ; 

 setae red-brown. 



Technical description : Carapace densely covered with short hairs, 

 also with many longer, curved, fish-hook-shaped hairs, by means of 

 which the protective clothing, usually consisting of sponges, is held in 

 place. Carapace roughly subpyriform, tumid, wide at the orbital line, 

 narrowed in the posterior region, thence widening posteriorly; post- 

 lateral angles of the carapace produced into a strong, tapering, acumi- 

 nate spine which is directed obliquely backward and outward and a 

 little curved upward. There is a short, obliquely erect spine in the 

 median line above the posterior margin. There are four large, rounded 

 prominences, each with a tubercle at the summit, on the upper surface 

 of the carapace outlining a cross ; the one on the gastric region is the 

 largest. The rostral horns are paired, flattened, adjacent and sub- 

 parallel at the base, divergent distally. There is much diversity 

 within the species in the length, curvature and direction of the horns, 

 which range from 20 to 40 percentum of the length of the remainder 

 of the carapace. The superior orbital margin is oblique, sharply 

 emarginate, cleft by a suture not far from the postorbital angle ; pre- 

 orbital angle prominent, forward curved; postorbital angle rounded, 

 closely appressed. The cornea is well developed and projects beyond 

 the orbital cavity. Between the preorbital angle and rostral horn 

 there is visible a long, acute spine pointing obliquely outward; this 

 arises near the inner angle of the basal article of the antennae. The 

 antennal flagellum is slender, multiarticulate, and reaches three-fifths 

 of the length of the rostral horn. The antennulae fold obliquely 

 within the fossett. 



The external maxillipeds are close-fitting and have the merus shorter 

 than the ischium, squarish, except that the outer distal angle is 

 rounded and the inner one excavate for the insertion of the palp. 



The chelipeds are equal, longer in the male than in the female ; those 

 of the former having the merus and propodus subequal, each about as 



