A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



the House of Commons that only one species of lobster is found off 

 the coasts of Great Britain, as though they had never heard of the rock 

 lobster, Paliimrus vulgaris, or of Nephrops norivegicus, the Norway lobster. 

 But the consideration of lobsters, with their kith and kin, must be 

 deferred till the numerous crabs of Sussex have been discussed. Though 

 crabs and lobsters are alike Decapods, or ten-footed stalk-eyed Malaco- 

 straca, the crabs form a great division apart known as Brachyura or 

 short-tails. In these the insignificant abdomen, tail, or pleon, is so 

 folded against the breast as often to escape altogether the notice of the 

 unobservant. This is especially the case with the male. In the female 

 the tail, though not thick, is usually broad, the more effectually to take 

 its part in holding together the eggs. These are often so multitudinous 

 that they force the tail far out from the breast or sternal plastron by 

 their swollen mass and make it conspicuous. The Brachyura are divided 

 into five great sections. The one that includes the eatable crab bears 

 the title Cyclometopa, not because the front is like a wheel or cycle, but 

 only because it is more or less arcuate. Twelve Sussex species belong to 

 various families of this section. The family Cancrids is represented by 

 Cancer pagurus, the family Xanthidas by Pirimela denticulata (Montagu) 

 and Pilumnus hirtellus (Linn.). This latter is not uncommon. Adam 

 White records a specimen of it from Sussex, presented to the British 

 Museum by J. E. Gray, Esq.,' and Bell says, ' the finest specimens I ever 

 saw I procured from prawn and lobster pots at Bognor in September, 

 1842. It is worthy of remark that amongst twenty or thirty specimens 

 I found only one female, a dried and mutilated one.' ^ This shaggy little 

 species is the only one that our waters produce out of an extensive genus, 

 and according to Bell it can be readily distinguished from all its foreign 

 brethren by the absence of spines from the upper margin of the orbit. 

 On the other hand it will be found to have a rather pretty feature in the 

 orbit's denticulate lower margin. There is a marked inequality in the 

 size of the two chelipeds, the larger being developed impartially on the 

 right side or the left. Pirimela denticulata is a small species, but attracting 

 attention by the dentation and prominence of its front, the ridges on the 

 back of its carapace, and the characters of its outer maxillipeds. It is 

 perhaps nowhere very common. Mr. Guermonprez informs me that 

 he has taken a single specimen at Bognor. 



To the family Portunid^ belongs Carcinus manas (Pennant), the 

 shore crab. This, like Cancer pagurus, is eatable and is eaten, but 

 though thousands and myriads have fallen victims to man's appetite their 

 martyrdom has never won them much respect. Bell speaks of the flavour 

 being very delicate and sweet,' without apparently influencing gastron- 

 omers, who perhaps seldom study his book. Apart however from any 

 value it may have for the epicure, this bold and defiant tenant of the 

 shore has had its day of popularity. At one time a controversy was rife 

 between naturalists who affirmed and others who denied that metamor- 



^ List of the specimens of British Animals in the British Museum (1850), pt. iv. p. 1 1. 

 * British Stalk-eyed Crustacea, p. 70. * Loc. cit. p. 78. 



246 



