146 LARVA OF LIMULUS. 



living Limulus rotundicauda, Latr, which, according to 

 Milne-Edwards, is also found in the Moluccas. The man was, 

 of course, asked to bring more of them, but declared he could 

 not do so unless we went over to the other side of the straits 

 to Basilan or Malamani, where his specimen had been caught. 

 This was done afterwards, when the ship had to go there in 

 order to take in coals ; but during the short time of our stay 

 no king-crabs could be procured, though I offered high rewaids, 

 and some men, who said they knew where to find them, 

 were sent out, but never came back to bring anything. It 

 appears that this Limulus inhabits the shallow water round the 

 small islands, a great many of which are to be found in these 

 straits. The native who had brought me the first specimen 

 was further asked whether he knew what they did with their 

 eggs, and he at once pointed to the swimmerettes as the place 

 where these were attached. It appears also that L. molluc- 

 canus carries its eggs about, for it is stated that the animal 

 with its eggs is frequently brought to the market of Batavia, 

 where they are both eaten. If this is the case the American 

 king-crabs differ in habits very much from their eastern cousins, 

 for, according to Lockwood, they deposit their eggs in a sand- 

 hole, where these are fecundated by the male, and then left to 

 themselves. Unfortunately the shortness of our stay in Zam- 

 boanga did not allow me to investigate this question more 

 thoroughly, nor did I attach at first so much importance to the 

 matter, thinking the development of the eastern king-crab 

 would be very much the same as that of the American one. 

 But to my greatest astonishment I found one day among the 

 surface animals brought up by the towing-net from behind the 

 ship, J»Jauplii and larvse in different stages, which [at the 

 time appeared to me to] clearly belong to Limulus. The 

 next days my attention was, of course, entirely directed to 

 them, and I succeeded in getting the whole series of stages 

 from the newly-hatched Nauplias to the larva, which shows 

 already under its skin the abdominal and the first traces of 

 the thoracic appendages. In the whole these larvas were 

 rare, at night commoner than in daytime. Altogether I 



