Mr. W. Thompson on tlie Crustacea of Ireland. 103 



must have been dragged from their shells, which, in no instance that 

 I recollect, were found in the stomach of the iish along with them. 



One of these crabs inhabiting a Buccinmn undutum was brought 

 up alive in the dredge from a depth of fifty fathoms otF the Mull of 

 Galloway. See 'Aimals,' vol. x. p. 21. 

 Pagurus Prideaux, Leach, IMal. pi. 26. f. 5 and 6. 

 P. Prideauxii, Ediv. Crust, t. ii. p. 216. 



Has been taken by Mr. Hyndman and myself when dredging in 

 Strangford and Belfast loughs, and in the open sea off Dundrum, 

 county Down, and in every instance occupying the shell invested 

 by the Adamsia maculatu {Actinia inaculata, Adams). Leach states 

 that " Mr. Prideaux has observed it in a vast variety of habitations, 

 even in the tubes of the DentaUa and in the shell of Scaphander lig- 

 narius [Bulla lignaria']." To me this appears singular, for among the 

 very numerous specimens of Paguri in my collection from all quarters 

 of the Irish coast, and found inhabiting shells of various species, not a 

 P. Prideauxii occurs, except in connection with the Actinia already 

 named. This is a remarkable fact. The connection of the two spe- 

 cies is surely more than accidental. It may be further stated, that 

 in the localities whence P. Prideauxii was obtained, P. Bernhardus is 

 very common ; and in the loughs mentioned, a few individuals of 

 two or three other species of Paguri have been procured. 

 " Pagurus erinaceus." 



In the collection of Mr. J. V. lliompson is an Irish specimen of 

 a Pagurus considered as undescribed, and so named by him. 



Porcellana platycheles, Edw. Crust, t. ii. p. 255 ; Desm. p. 195. pi. 



34. f. 1. 

 Great-clawed crab, Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. iv. p. 9. pi. 6. f. 2. 



This littoral crab seems to be a local species, but plentiful where 

 it does occur ; Templeton notices it as found on the " Whitehouse 

 shore by Mr. James Grimshaw, Jun." On the beach near Carrick- 

 fergus, a few miles distant from that locality, it was procured in 

 abundance in June 1835, by the late Mrs. Patterson of Belfast, who 

 subsequently obtained it near Cultra, on the county Down shore of 

 the bay. Mr. R. Ball states that this species is very abundant on 

 the shores of the countj^ Dublin, and especially at Portmarnock : 

 he remarks that in once turning over a large stone here in cold win- 

 try weather, the under side was entirely covered with these crabs, 

 " packed as close to each other as tiles on a roof!" In June 1838, 

 I found the P. platycheles in numbers beneath large stones at the 

 island of Lambay, off the Dublin coast — on the 1st of this month, 

 the females abounded in ova. At Lahinch, county Clare, this species 

 occurred to Mr. E. Forbes and myself in July 1840, between tide- 

 marks, and beneath the same stones P. longicornis was met with alive. 

 Porcellana longicornis, Edw. Crust, t. ii. p. 257. 

 Long-horned crab, Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. iv. p. 5. pi. 1. f. 3. 



This species chiefly inhabits deep water on our coasts, but in 

 some localities lives on shores exposed at the ebb of every tide. It 

 has been dredged up in abundance in the loughs of Strangford and 

 Belfast, and in the open sea off the north-east coast of Ireland in 



