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America, from Brazil to Florida and the Bermudas ; and two or three species 

 are found in tropical West Africa. Two of the species found in West Africa 

 have a most extensive range eastwards, one to Tahiti, the other to Panama. 



The Coenobites form one of the most characteristic elements of the 

 population of small tropical islands — especially of islands uninhabited by man 

 — and can be observed to perfection (locally) in the smaller islets of the 

 Andaman Archipelago and of the Laccadives. In the Andamans, though 

 they swarm most in the belt of open jungle that fringes the beach, they are 

 common enough in the depths of the forest. 



They seem to prefer stout, heavy shells (e. g. Turbo and Nerita), but 

 they are by no means fastidious about their tenement, and very large indi- 

 viduals, who find a difificulty in getting fitted, will make shift with the half of 

 an empty coconut, or will even go unprotected. 



They are very lively during rain, but they do not have much to do with 

 the sea, though the females go to the sea to hatch-off their eggs, for the larvae 

 are aquatic. 



Though on occasion scavengers and carnivorous, they are chiefly 

 vegetable-feeders, and will even climb trees in search of food. 



A good account, both of the morphology and of the manner of life of the 

 Coenobites, is contained in Borradaile's Land Crtistaceam of Minikoi, published 

 in Stanley Gardiner's Fatuui and Geography of the Maldive and Laccadive 

 A rchipelagoes. 



Key to the Indian specks of the genus Coenobita. 



1 Aotennal acicle not fused with the 2nd joint of the peduncle : 

 eyestalks not strongly compressed : a brush of hairs on the inner surface of 

 the right palm only ... _ „ _ — C. dypeatus, ^ 



II. Antennal acicle fused with the 2nd joint of the peduncle: 

 eyestalks strongly compressed : a brush of hairs on the inner surface of 

 both palms : — 



1 An oblique file of upright laminar teeth (stridulating mechanism) 

 on the upper part of the outer surface of the left palm : — 



a. Outer surface of propodite of third left leg flat, and 



separated from the anterior surface by a well-defined 

 crest : coxa of fifth right leg of male moderately produced, 

 more so than the left _ .. _ C . rugoius. 



b. Outer surface of propodite of third left leg convex and not 



sharply separated from the anterior surface : coxa of 



fifth right leg of male produced into a long curved tube C, perlatm, 



2. No stridulating mechanism on the left palm : the coxa: of the 

 5th legs are hardly more prominent in the male than they are 

 in the female .„ — — ••• — C. cavipes.^ 



