CRUSTACEANS 5 1 



of Tasmania, which has a carapace of a foot across, large 

 males developing the claw to a length of 30 inches. 

 Gruesome stories are told of hapless castaways being 

 killed and eaten by packs of these crabs. 



Swimming Crabs or Fiddler Crabs (Vortunus\ repre- 

 sented by seven British species, are all characteristic in the 

 flattened form of the last pair of legs. These are moved 

 at a great rate, giving the popular title of Fiddler Crabs, 

 and enabling the creatures to take long skimming 

 " nights " through the water. The handsome Henslowi 

 habitually favours the surface waters in calm weather, 

 actually giving chase to and attacking such active fish as 

 the mackerel and pollack. There is an extraordinary 

 inequality in the sexes in this species. Although many 

 hundreds of thousands of males have been taken by the 

 fisheries research station at Plymouth during the last 

 forty years, only two females have been recorded through- 

 out that period. Over 5,000 males were once taken in 

 a single haul, which contained no females, by the research 

 vessel attached to the Prince of Monaco's Aquarium. 



A remarkable tropical form (Podophthalmus) has the eyes 

 mounted on stalks suggestive of a snail's horns. 



The masked Crabs (Corystes) are represented on our 

 coasts by one species of a very curious form. The male 

 has enormously long claws, and in both sexes the antennas 

 are each furnished with a double row of stiff hairs. These 

 when brought together form a four-sided tube through 

 which the crab can breathe in deep water whilst lying 

 securely concealed beneath the sand. It is exceedingly 

 abundant on all our more sheltered southern beaches. 



The Land Crabs are widely distributed in all tropic 



