SCYLLA AND CHAKYBDIS 69 



Species are strikingly handsome, both in shape and colour. 

 Sci/lla serrata (Forskal), a widely distributed Indo-Pacific 

 species, is said by Krauss to be the largest and strongest 

 of the South African Crustacea. The chelipeds of the 

 male are much larger and more powerful than those of the 

 female, and colossal in relation to the carapace. The 

 damaged limbs and bodies covered with scars, uniformly 

 exhibited by male specimens, are adduced in support of 

 the inference that their combats one with another are not 

 a little intemperate. On the muddy coasts of the Bay of 

 Natal, Krauss says, this species lives in great deep holes, 

 and wears the dingy earthy colour of its residence. They 

 sit at the openings of their holes when the tide is coming 

 in to snap up the food which it brings them, and to sun 

 themselves when the tide is going out. At any one's 

 approach they vanish into their holes in a moment, or, if 

 their escape is cut off, they raise themselves up on their 

 hind legs, and by clashing together their powerful claws 

 endeavour to scare away the intruder. By driving a spade 

 into their slanting tunnels their retreat may be cut off, or 

 they will clutch at the proffered point of a stick and may 

 so be drawn out, but the Caffres, who consider them dainty 

 food, capture them by spear-throwing. 



Charyhdis, de Haan, 1833, belongs to a group of 

 genera in which the carapace is said to be only moderately 

 broad, and the antero-lateral margins have seven teeth or 

 fewer. However, in Charijhdis cruciatiis (Herbst), the 

 carapace is of very considerable breadth. The colouring 

 of this species is highly remarkable. Herbst in 1796 

 gives a fine picture and a glowing description of one of 

 the specimens which he received from the East Indies. 

 The colours in the plate are vivid, but it cannot be said 

 that they tally in all respects with the verbal account. 

 According to the latter, the carapace from the front to 

 beyond the middle of the field is of blood-red hue upon a 

 yellowish ground, and marked with the figure of a great 

 yellowish white cross. Down the sides run broad stripes 

 of greenish red, shading off into grey. The upper surface 

 of the chelipeds is marbled with yellow and red, the hands 



