14 



Eye. — Short and thick. 



IJ ppev surfaces of legs. — Rough ; covered with several series of low 

 flattened and somewhat rounded tubercles ; a fringe of setae 

 in front of each tubercle. A spine upon the end of the third 

 joint of each leg, more prominent and acute than in Palinurus 

 hitoclii. The spines of the first pair of legs are scarcely more 

 prominent than the others. 



CRABS. 



(i) Blue Swimming Crab, Lit pa pelagica (Linnaeus).* 



This species is by far the most common of our edible crabs ; 

 being, in fact, the only one that is constantly represented in 

 our markets. This, like all our other edible species, is a 

 true swimming crab; having the legs flattened, and the last 

 pair turned into flat paddle-shaped organs, to adapt it for a 

 natatorial existence. 



(2) Mangrove Crab, Scylla serrata (Forskal). 



This species is quite common along our coast — more par- 

 ticularly on the northern portion. It is really a typical 

 tropical species, being still more abundant on the Queensland 

 coast. In Queensland it is often known as the Wide Bay 

 Crab, on account of its abundance in the bay of that name. 

 It does not come into our markets nearly so often as the 

 preceding, nor in anything like the numbers; consequently, 

 as it attains a very large size— being by far the bulkiest of 

 our crabs — it always commands a ready sale and a high 

 figure. In color it is of a deep olive-green or dark brown. 

 It usually occurs in shallow water; and, as its name implies, 

 on mangrove mud-flats, where it is often to be found, in 

 basin-shaped hollows excavated out of the mud. 



*In a paper deaUng with the structure of this crustacean, which I 

 re-id before the Linnean Society of New South W^al-s in 1898, I dealt 

 with the peculiar form of the pleon or " tail " of what I termed in the 

 body of my paper the " sterile" female, but which I mentioned at 

 the time might simply be the " immature " female. Such is the case 

 and all the females pass through the stage described therein. [Vide 

 " Proceedings of the Linnean Societv of New South Whales, Vol. xxiii 

 1898.) 



