CRUSTACEANS 



phoses are undergone by Crustacea between the egg and the adult con- 

 dition. Then it was that the common shore crab became of service 

 just because of its commonness and the intrepidity which made it so 

 very easy to catch. Moreover the tenacity of Hfe which the parent 

 exhibits was found to be so far inherited by the offspring that they 

 could with comparative facility be reared in an aquarium. Accordingly 

 it was soon proved that here at least very remarkable changes of form 

 are undergone in the juvenile period. Adam White refers this species 

 to ' British coast, everywhere,' and also states that the British Museum 

 possesses a variety from Brighton, presented by Mr. W. Wing.^ It is 

 also recorded as very common in the special district of Sussex explored 

 by the observers to whom we are indebted for the Natural History of 

 Hastings and St. heonards and the Vicinity. ^ In regard to the valuable 

 catalogues contained in this work and its three supplements, the Rev. 

 E. N. Bloomfield of Guestling Rectory, Hastings, has kindly informed 

 me that the lists of Crustacea in the first issue and the first supplement 

 may be attributed to Mr. E. A. Butler, the Entomostraca of the second 

 supplement to Mr. H. Langdon, and the few additions in the third 

 supplement to Mr. P. Rufford. For the nomenclature of the stalk- 

 eyed crustaceans these authorities adopted the names used by Bell, which 

 are by no means remarkable for conforming to the rules of priority, 

 although, as we shall later have occasion to notice, the principle of those 

 rules was accepted by Bell himself. The coastline included in the 

 Hastings district may be described as extending from Rye to Bexhill; 

 and the introduction to the Natural History explains that cliffs of the 

 Wealden formation, rising sometimes to a height of nearly 300 feet, 

 form this line from Cliff End, Fairlight, to St. Leonards, and from 

 Bulverhythe to Bexhill, the remainder being occupied by marsh land 

 which contains in many places comparatively recent marine deposits and 

 remains of a submarine forest. ' A few miles to the south-east of Hast- 

 ings there is a Shoal known as the " Diamond " ; it is much frequented 

 by fishermen and forms an excellent hunting ground for the Naturalist.'^ 

 The authors add that many of the marine animals in their lists have been 

 found only on this shoal, but without indicating which these are. 



Portumnus latipes (Pennant) is recorded as common in the Hastings 

 district* under the name P. variegatus given it by Leach and Bell. 

 Both those authors expressly recognize that Pennant had much earlier 

 called it latipes. This name of ' broadfoot ' it owes to the flattened 

 middle joints of its ambulatory legs and the rather broadly lanceolate 

 form of the terminal joints in the last pair. Leach, who speaks of it 

 as one of the most beautiful of our malacostracous animals,'* may have 

 called it ' variegated ' for two reasons, being partly influenced by its 

 pale purplish white colour mottled with a darker hue, and partly by the 

 descriptive title. Cancer latipes variegatus, used by Plancus.* But that 



1 List Brit. Mus. p. 12. * Nat. Hist. Hastings (1878), p. 41. ' Loc. cit. p. 4. 



* Loc. cit. p. 41. 6 Malacostraca Podophthalmata Britannia; pt. 2 (181 5), text topi. 4. 



® De Conchis minus notis (1739, ed. 2, 1760), p. 34. 



247 



