86 SEA-SHORE LIFE 
yellow eye-like spots on the sides of the second and sixth abdomi- 
nal rings. The broad tail flappers are richly banded with blue, 
yellow and brown. This lobster is a timid creature, and relies upon 
its sharp spines for protection. If the feelers or legs be seized they 
are quickly thrown off, and then regenerate, developing only after 
the moults, when the shell is soft. It becomes fully two feet in 
leneth, and is an active swimmer, being 
enabled to dart rapidly backward by the 
powerful strokes of its large tail flappers. 
A closely related species called ( Panu- 
lirus interruptus) is found on the coast of 
California. 
The Snapping Prawns, (Alpheus). 
There are about twelve species of these 
little lobster-like crustaceans which range 
on our coast from Brazil to Virginia. The 
largest are not more than one and three- 
quarters of an inch long. One claw is 
much larger than the other, and is pro- 

vided with a sharp-edged blade which is 
normally held out at right angles to the 
Fig. 54; SNAPPING-PRAWN. 
ee re ene Cea claw. At the least alarm this blade is 
gas, Florida. closed with a sharp snap reminding one 
of the explosion of a small torpedo. These 
little creatures live in crevices of coral reefs, under shells or stones, 
and fairly swarm in sponges; so that, when a sponge is lifted from 
the water it crackles as if filled with minute firecrackers. The 
report is so sharp that if one of these little prawns be placed in a 
glass aquarium jar, one is deceived into supposing that the glass 
has suddenly broken. They are inveterate fighters, and if two be 
placed in the same aquarium one or the other will quickly be dis- 
membered and devoured. ‘The eggs are carried about attached to 
the abdominal appendages of the female, and after hatching they 
swim through the ocean, and moult a number of times before assum- 
ing their final abode within a sponge or under dead shells, ete. 
Alpheus sauleyi is a small species, from five-eighths to one and 
two-thirds inches long, which lives within sponges off the Florida 
coast and Bahamas. The body is translucent brown or green, and 
the upper surface of the great claw is vermillion. 
