( 140 ) 



Eyestalks and oph'thalmic scales juxtaposed, the former generally com- 

 pressed : eyes terminal and lateral. 



Antennular peduncles extremely long: the flacjella compressed, rigid, and 

 truncated at tip, the upper flagellum being much longer and broader than 

 the lower. Antennal peduncles compressed, the acicle small and often fused 

 with the 2nd joint, the flagellum long, coarse, and stiffish. 



External maxillipeds juxtaposed at base : the exopodite of the first pair 

 of maxillipeds non-flagellate ; the flagella of the exopodites of the 2nd and 

 3rd maxillipeds short, hairy and non-segmented : the palp of the 1st maxillae 

 non-flagellate. 



Chelipeds unequal, the left being very much the stouter, all the joints 

 short, broad, and clumsy-looking : the fingers move vertically, and have the 

 extreme tip corneous or calcareous. 



2nd and 3rd legs stout, not, or not much, longer than the larger cheli- 

 ped. 4th pair of legs in a sort subcheliform, the dactylus being minute and 

 the propodite forming a large suboval plate. 5th pair of legs cheliform, not 

 shorter, and not much slenderer, than the 4th. The subterminal pavement 

 of corneous imbricating granules is very well developed both on the 4th and 

 5th pair of legs and on the abdominal appendages that form the tail-fan. 



The abdomen is soft, fieshy, and spirally coiled. Besides the append- 

 ages of the 6th abdominal somite (which are better developed on the left 

 side than on the right) the female possesses 3 good-sized biramous append- 

 ages (somites 2 — 4) on the left side, which are either altogether absent, or 

 are represented by rudiments (that are easily lost in spirit specimens} in the 

 male. 



The gills are phyllobranchise, and are 14 in number on either side 

 arranged as in Pagurus, but the first four (the arthrobranchs of the external 

 maxillipeds and chelipeds) are non-functional rudiments. The 10 functional 

 gill-plumes are insufficient for respiration, and subsidiary respiration is 

 carried on partly by the wall of the gill-chamber, and partly by the soft ab- 

 dominal integument, which sometimes (anteriorly) grows out into excrescences 

 for the purpose ; for the members of the genus Coenobiia, though they occasion- 

 ally visit the sea, are " land-crabs ", and often live at a distance from the 

 shore. 



The distribution of Coetiobita is very like that of Clibanarius, to which 

 genus (and to Calcinus) Coenobita is closely related. The majority of Coeno- 

 bites are found m the coast lands and islands of the Indo-Pacific, from the 

 Red Sea and East Africa to the eastern bounds of Polynesia. A few species 

 extend to the Pacific coast of America, from California to Colombia and the 

 Galapagos Is. One species occurs on the Atlantic seaboard of tropical 



