REVISION OF THE CRUSTACEA OF THE GENUS 

 LEPIDOPA. 



By James E. Benedict, 



Assistant Curator of Marine Invertebrates. 



No group of small nonparasitic animals is more inseparably and 

 picturesquely associated with the environment in which the greater 

 numbers live than are the members of the super-family Hippoidea, of 

 which the sand bug, known as IIipj)a taJ^yokW' since the time of Say, 

 is the best known representative on the east coast of the United States. 

 Members of this family are occasionally found even as far north as 

 Cape Cod. They live in the sand on open beaches, which have been 

 said to be the most barren of places for a collector with the exception 

 of a desert. Nevertheless a walk along the shore is always mterestmg. 

 The bleached and broken tests of sea urchins, beach-worn shells of 

 mollusks which have lived beyond the surf lines, and the fragments of 

 innumerable things which the waves cast up, momentarily attract the 

 attention. Living things that occur are but few, and usually well- 

 known species. One may expect to see an occasional swnmmng crab 

 protectino- itself from the surf and perhaps from the collector, by 

 settling kick into the sand nearly or quite out of sight, or a runnmg 

 crab hastening to its burrow, or if cut off from this retreat plunging 

 into the surf out of reach of scoop nets. The long rows of partially 

 dried sea-weed often shelter Amphipods, Isopods, and shore insects, 

 and digging along the water's edge brings to light a tew small Anne- 

 lids and lynaptfs, but the hunt alongshore with shovel aiid sle^ 

 where the waves are pounding results ^-^^^l^^^ "^^"^/"^ /^J^l ^" 

 Hippids, which scuttle about the sieve in the vain effort to escape, o 

 1^ liev; is not at hand, and the contents of the shovel hav. been spr^^^^^ 

 upon the beach, quickly disappearing in the sand only to.be bioug^ 

 back by a plunge of the hand. But in the warmer Amor a. .a i., 

 among the Hippids an occasional Atbunea or Z./>«%^w.l be found 

 s mlgly liv ng under the same conditions as the Hippids, thoiigh 

 diff^^^^^Jtt^^ 



«Now Emerita talpoida. Bull. U. S. FishCom^^II^^900^p^ 



'^^^^^^oi^.a^. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM. VoL. XXVl-No. 1337. 



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