SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS 69 
species are strikingly handsome, both in shape and colour. 
Scylla 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. 
Charybdis, 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 Charybdis cruciatus (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 
