CRUSTACEANS 



species is rare on the coasts of England and France, it is abundant more 

 to the south as far as the coasts of the Sahara, and refer to its having 

 been taken on various occasions at the Azores.* 



In the family Maiids the county is credited with five species. 

 Maia squinado (Herbst) is mentioned in the Natural History of Hastings as 

 not uncommon.^ Mr. Guermonprez incorporates it in his list as common 

 at Bognor. It is a large species with the outside prickly, the inside 

 good for food. Among its hairs and thorns other crustaceans often find 

 lodgment for their small bodies, making the Maia a sort of curiosity 

 shop for the microscopist. Hyas araneus (Linn.) was received from 

 Worthing by Bell, who states that it occurs in considerable abundance 

 at Hastings and that he had himself obtained it there.^ It grows to a 

 large size, though its body is never comparable in bulk with that of 

 Maia squinado. Hyas coarctatus. Leach, was also procured by Bell at 

 Hastings and received by him from Worthing.* The lateral constriction 

 of the carapace, which has suggested the name coarctatus, is almost the 

 only character for distinguishing this species from the larger H. araneus. 

 The smaller form is said to frequent the greater depths, but they occur 

 so frequently in the same localities that some suspicion of their specific 

 distinctness may be permitted. Fine specimens are found in arctic 

 waters as well as in our own. Mr. Hailstone allowed himself to suggest 

 a third species, under the name H. serratus, for specimens a quarter 

 of an inch long,^ which are almost undoubtedly only the fry of the 

 earlier named species, whether the word ' species ' be applied in the 

 singular or the plural. Blastus tetraodon (Pennant), better known as Pisa 

 tetraodon, the four-horned spider-crab, is recorded by Leach from Brighton, 

 and Bell says : ' The habits of this species, so far as I have had an oppor- 

 tunity of observing them, are curious. They are found concealed under 

 the long hanging fuci which clothe the rocks at some distance from the 

 shore, in which situation I have taken them among the Bognor rocks. 

 They congregate in vast numbers at the place I have just mentioned in 

 the prawn and lobster pots. I have seen probably thirty among the 

 refuse of one of these, attracted no doubt by the garbage which is placed 

 in them as bait. These were much larger and finer than any I have 

 seen elsewhere.'" Blastus tribulus (Linn.), under the name of Pisa 

 gibbsii. Leach, is recorded by Bell from Hastings.' In it the rostrum is 

 longer, with the component horns of it much less divergent, than in the 

 preceding species. This genus is distinguished from Hyas by having 

 the last joint in the walking legs fringed with a comb of denticles, of 

 which Hyas is devoid. 



Eurynome aspera (Pennant) represents the long-armed and often 

 rugged family of the Parthenopidas, wherein the walking legs are notably 

 shorter than the chelipeds. Hailstone describes from the Sussex coast 



' Risultats des Campagnes Scientlfiques, fasc. 7 ; Crustacis Dicapodes (1894), p. 7. '^ p. 41. 



' Brit'uh Stalk-eyed Crustacea, p. 33. * p. 36. 



6 Loudon's Magazine o/Nalurat History, viii. 549. 



* British Stalk-eyed Crustacea, p. 24. '' Loc. cit. p. 29. 



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