66 IOWA STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY 
The chele are quite small in the specimens collected, and the eye 
stalks short. The abdomen of the female is very broad and al- 
most orbicular. In examining specimens after our return the 
color in some seems to have changed to a dull red. 
Of course the universally distributed hermit crabs were abun- 
dant on the reefs. This group seems to be a remarkably success- 
ful one even if most of its members do live in borrowed homes 
and pay no rent. The largest and most conspicuous hermit that 
we collected has been identified by Dr. Schmitt of the U. S. 
National Museum as Dardanus guttatus. This form is very bril- 
liantly colored, even the terga are a very rich crimson, a fact 
difficult to understand when we remember that the abdomen is 
habitually concealed in the shell occupied by the hermit. It is 
noticeable, however, that the abdomen is not so unsymmetrical in 
this species as in most of the pagurid crabs which may indicate 
that the hermit habit has been acquired in comparatively recent 
times. The chele and anterior appendages are very hairy, bril- 
liant crimson in color with conspicuous white dots which stand out 
in a striking manner from the crimson background. The antenne 
are very long, slender and almost white in color. 
The writer was much disappointed in not securing specimens of 
the robber crab (Birgus latro), although it is found on some of 
the remoter islands of the Fiji group. It does not occur, how- 
ever, on Vitilevu where we spent most of our time. An oppor- 
tunity to study this strange form in its native habitat would have 
been most welcome as it would have enabled me to fairly complete 
the study of a series of land crabs illustrating the transition be- 
tween strictly aquatic and practically terrestrial forms, involving 
an examination of the respiratory organs of these crustacea which 
has interested me for a number of years.* Birgus latro is regard- 
ed as having descended from pagurid ancestors which habitually 
ensconced themselves in gastropod shells, but their descendants 
have widely departed from the ancestral mode of life, have taken 
to the shore and even climb trees after coconuts. 
We heard the well known story about the manner in which the 
robber crab is captured by the natives, and it seems to be quite 
generally accepted in Fiji. The story is that when the native 
locates one of these big crabs up a palm tree he climbs up part 
way and fastens a strip or girdle of grass and leaves around the 
4See narrative of Bahama Expedition p. 97 and Barbados-Antigua Ex- 
pedition p. 183 for a discussion of these forms. 
