48 TRUE CRABS OF MONTEREY BAY 



The chelipeds and ambulatory legs are pubescent, as is the case with 

 the carapace. The carpus of the chelipeds is marked with several costae 

 bearing low spines and rows of hairs ; these costse are generally indicated 

 in the typical form by a line of slightly coarser granulations. There is 

 an acute tubercle above the hinge, a strong spine at the inner angle and a 

 well marked spine below this. These spines are present in some typical 

 ontennarius of the same size, but the lower spine is more generally lacking 

 and never of as great size. The hand is marked with two superior and 

 five external carinse, all formed of rows of hairs and spines, the spines in 

 the upper carinas being much longer and more pronounced. In t)rpical 

 antennarius of the same size these carinse are more or less well marked 

 by rows of granulations. 



This specimen is, as I have said, the extreme of divergence from the 

 typical form ; other smaller individuals show the same pubescence, some 

 have the same extreme type of areolation, notably a larger female from 

 San Diego, the only one not from Monterey Bay hei^e considered, many 

 young show roughness of the hand, but no other specimen combines as 

 many of these characters. 



The total of these variations from the typical form of antennarius 

 might merit specific distinction were it not for certain other facts. All 

 specimens in which I have noticed these characters in any marked degree 

 are immature females. Though they dififer from typical forms of the same 

 size, and therefore presumably of similar age, yet certain of the characters, 

 chiefly the roughness of the hand and the pubescence of the carapace, 

 vary with age in the typical form, being more apparent in the young, so 

 that these differences though apparently much greater than those due to 

 age, cannot be said to be of a dissimilar kind. Again, in the typical adult, 

 the female has a more convex and deeply areolated carapace than the 

 male, which gives rise to a suspicion that the difference in this character 

 may be, in part, sexual. 



Miss Rathbun has informed me that she has examined very hairy 

 specimens of about the size described — 40 and 50 mm. — from La Jolla and 

 San Diego which she considered as a variety of antennarius. Sufficient 

 material may establish this variety, but the collection at hand does not 

 seem to warrant it. 

 ^ The color of live specimens is fairly uniform and undergoes little 



change in alcohol. The general shade is a dark red usually more or less 

 mottled with a lighter, more yellowish tinge; the under parts are yellowish 

 white spotted with red, a coloration not found in any other species of 

 Cancer examined. 



