FOSSIL CRABS FROM THE REPUBLIC OF HAITI. 



By Mary J. Rathbun, 



Associate in Zoology, United States National Museum. 



The fossil crustaceans in the collections made by the United States 

 Geological Survey Expedition to the Republic of Haiti in 1921 are 

 few and fragmentary. They consist exclusively of brachyuran 

 crabs. To only one was it considered advisable to give a specific 

 name. A Xanthid crab, either Zanthopsis or an allied genus, is 

 represented by a hand and may eventually be linked up with a known 

 species of which only a carapace has yet been found. Various 

 fingers of Panopeus might belong to any one of three common West 

 Indian species. Other fingers of the Panopeus shape differ in hav- 

 ing an oblique ridge on the upper surface, a character not before 

 noted. A single article which is thought to be the propodus (palm) 

 of a Parthenopid is so different from the known types as to hint at 

 a generic separation. A fragment out of the middle of a carapace 

 of Mithrax is akin to Mithrax spinosissimusj^ although not corre- 

 sponding in detail. This genus has not before been found fossil, 

 but its presence in the Pleistocene was to be expected, as the genus 

 is very abundantly distributed at the present day throughout the 

 West Indies. 



LIST OF CRABS STRATIGRAPIIICALLY ARRANGED. 



Pleistocene series : About 3 km S. of Mole St.-Nicolas ; 9844 : 



MITHRAX, species. 



Lower Miocene series: Right bank of River Fond Bleu; station 

 14 of traverse; Maissade tongue of Thomonde formation; 9717: 



PORTUNUS (PORTUNUS) HAITENSIS. 



Lower Miocene series : Long bluff on right bank of River Blanche 

 below gorge; bed 47 of section (highest bed) ; Maissade tongue of 

 Thomonde formation; 9722: 



PORTUNUS (PORTUNUS) HAITENSIS. 



Lower Miocene series: Trail from Las Cahobas to Thomonde, 

 about 1.5 km S. S. E. of Thomonde; top of Thomonde formation; 



9778: 



PORTUNUS (PORTUNUS) HAITENSIS. 



1 See Milne Edwards, Mag. de Zool., vol. 2, 1832, cl. 7, pis. 2 and .3. 



No. 2477.— Proceedings U. S National Museum. Vol. 63, Art. 9. 



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