DOG-CEAB AND FKOG-CKAB 143 



of his Cancer raiiiformis, though in the next preceding 

 description he tells of a swift-running ' dog-crab,' Cancer 

 caninus, which is said to burrow under houses and enter 

 them. When the limbs of Ranina are drawn together it is 

 said to look not unlike a frog, a resemblance to which the 

 generic name points, as well as the trivial name of frog- 

 crab, and the specific name raniformis given it by 

 Rumphius. 



Uaninoides, Milne-Edwards, 1837, is nearly allied to 

 Ranina^ but has the last pair of legs very short and thread- 

 like instead of equal in size and similar in shape to the 

 preceding flattened pair. In Raninoicles jpersonatus, Hen- 

 derson, the pterygostomian areas are described as being 

 strongly granulated as well as slightly pubescent, and the 

 same is said of the type species of a new genus, Notopoicles 

 latus, Henderson, 1888. In the female of this species 

 there is an ovoid median opening in the sternum, between 

 the third and fourth pairs of legs. Raninoides personakis 

 has a similar opening but of very small size. The function 

 of these apertures does not appear to have been ex- 

 plained. 



Notopus, de Haan, 1841, includes several species, in 

 which the last pair of legs are of moderate size, not fili- 

 form. As the name of the genus implies, their position 

 is dorsal, and this, though a character common to the 

 family, is again emphasised in the specific name of Notojnis 

 dorsipes (Fabricius). Of a crustacean allied to this, 

 Darwin, in his ' Naturalist's Voyage,' gives the following 

 account : — ' During our different passages,' he says, ' south 

 of the Plata, I often towed astern a net made of bunting, 

 and thus caught many curious animals. Of Crustacea 

 there were many strange and undescribed genera. One, 

 which in some respects is allied to the Notopods (or those 

 crabs which have their posterior legs placed almost on 

 their backs, for the purpose of adhering to the under side 

 of rocks), is very remarkable from the structure of its 

 hind pair of legs. The penultimate joint, instead of ter- 

 minating in a simple claw, ends in three bristle-like 

 appendages of dissimilar lengths — the longer equalling 



