Crabs, Lobsters, Shrimps, Barnacles, etc. 



73 



ill lart, tlic more crabs we examine tlie greater is the variety of toilets 

 that we sec. And wliat is their use? Tiiey afford the best possible 

 concealment from en»;mies and from prey. For all tliese objects have 

 not fastened themselves on the crabs, but have been artistically placed 

 there by the crab itself — we dai-e hardly say intentionally , but by 

 reason of an inherited instinct wliich impels tlie animal to disguise 

 itself in this w;iy. All triangular Cral)s are exceedingly slow in their 

 movements, and dressed up in tliis way they resemble most closely a 

 stone overgrown with sea-weed ; especially as they have the habit of 

 remaining quite motionless when alarmed. The apparatus for affixing 

 these foreign bodies consists of a number of hooked bristles which are 

 distributed all over tiie shell; there llic crab deftly fastens with its claws 

 Mio algic and other ornaments. The Larger Spider-crab, Maja squinado 

 (Fig. 49), covers its back with small stones and shells instead of with 

 sea- weed. 



Lambrus (Fig. 14.'i) departs from this custom and depends more 

 upon its large and strong claws than upon concealment. 



Some of the Crabs with a square body have similar habits. Dorippe 

 lanata (Fig. 142) gets hold of any living or dead object Avithin its reach, 

 holds it above its body with the claws of the two last pairs of legs, 

 and Avalks about thus concealed. Sea-cucumbers and ascidians, crabs and 

 starfisiies, fishes' heads, bits of glass or wood, in fact anything and 

 everytiiing which can serve as a shield, is annexed without further ado. 

 Naturally, when the desired shield happens to be a living animal, there 

 often ensue very laughable conflicts l)etween the instinct-obeying crab 

 and its rehictant victim. 



Dromia, the Woolly-crab (fig. 167), covers itself so completely with 

 an orange-coloured sponge (Suberites, 

 p. 55), or with a colony of compound 

 ascidians , that , if you look at the 

 animal from above , onh' its legs are 





^V|^iJ^f?l^-?i^ 



Fig. 167. Dromia vvlgaris covered 

 with a spouge, '/•■! 'lat. size. 



visible. Here, too, the living- coat, 

 which increases in size as fast as the 

 cral), is held on by means of the two 

 last pairs of legs. 



The crabs with a round body 

 behave very differently, for tlie}' are 

 extremely clean. Calappa , the Bash- 

 ful-crab (Fig. 138), seeks protection by 



burying itself in the sand. With a few vigorous movements of its 

 large shovel-like legs it sinks itself up to the eyes in the sand, and 

 carefully surveys the country from this retreat. Ilia (Fig. 141) acts in 

 the same way. 



The most liighly developed kinds of this group are the Shore-crabs, 

 of which we will only mention Careinus (Green Crab, Fig. 137), Epiphia 

 (Fig. 144) and Lupa (Fig. 139). Their agility and slyness are surprising 

 and, together with their power of living and moving on land, point to 

 a further progress in their organisation. Those who have tried to catch 

 one will remember the difficulty in obtaining even one of a hundred, 



10 



