136 A HISTORY OF EECENT CRUSTACEA 



of Singapore, there were, lie says, 'two species with curved 

 hooks on their hindmost claws, by means of which they 

 hold on to a mangrove-leaf or a dead valve of a shell which 

 conceals the animal from view ; these leaves and dead 

 valves may be seen apparently walking along on the shore.' 

 The species in question are supposed by Mr, A. O. Walker, 

 in his account of the collection, to be JDorippe sima, Milne- 

 Edwards, Borippe astiita^ Fabricius, and Gonchoecetes conchi- 

 fera (Haswell). Bell says of numerous young specimens 

 of Dromia vulgaris^ which he had received from Sicily, 

 that every one had the carapace entirely covered with a 

 sponge, which concealed the two hinder pairs of legs, and 

 rendered them immovable. In Gryptodromia lateralis 

 (Gray), a species which ranges from Australia and New 

 Zealand to the coasts of Japan, the animal is said to have 

 almost invariably a sponge fixed on the carapace, covering 

 it completely. Ilypoconclia. salmlosa (Herbst), besides 

 protecting itself with the shell of a Lamellibranch mollusc, 

 perhaps wears an inner vest of sand, for the museum speci- 

 men which Herbst examined was, he says, more like a 

 lump of sand than a crab, and the carapace he found 

 was extremely thin, delicate, and almost membranaceous. 

 In this genus the sternal sulci of the female are widely 

 separate, ' each terminating in a tubercle opposite the 

 basal joint of the second ambulatory leg.' The terminal 

 joints of the last two pairs of legs are described as Y- 

 shaped, but it must be remembered that the two arms of 

 the Y are by no means equal. 



Petalomera pulchra, Miers, a Melanesian species of 

 very small size, may be noticed as one member of this 

 family which has obtained the epithet of beautiful, 

 although in general figure it is not so very remote from 

 the Dromia of which Herbst speaks so disrespectfully. 



Di/nomene, Latreille, 1825, is distinguished from the 

 rest of the family by having only the fifth pair of legs sub- 

 dorsal in position. 



