CLEANSER SWIMMING-CRAB. 103 



is very sharply and elegantly sculptured. There is, in fact, 

 no species of the genus, and scarcely any of the whole order, 

 the surface of which is more minutely and beautifully re- 

 lieved, and this is particularly the case with the hands 

 and wrists, the inequalities of which are most delicately 

 picked out. 



The early synonymy assigned to this species by Leach 

 is, to say the least, exceedingly doubtful. The figures to 

 which Linnaeus refers in his synonymes of Cancer depu- 

 rator, may be referred to two or three other species, with 

 quite as great probability as to this. But as Fabricius and 

 Leach have both appropriated the specific name of depu- 

 rator to the species, and as there is no proof whatever that 

 it was originally given to another species, I have preferred 

 retaining it, to the adoption of the name of plicatus, sub- 

 sequently assigned to it by Risso, and continued by Ed- 

 wards. 



This is not an unfrequent species on our coasts. In the 

 north it has been recorded by Mr. Embleton as occasion- 

 ally brought from deep water in Embleton Bay, adhering 

 to the nets of the fishermen. Leach states that it is the 

 most common of all the species of the genus ; but like 

 many others it is local, although, like them, very numerous 

 where it does occur. This is confirmed by the observation 

 of Mr. Ball, quoted by Mr. Thompson in his account of the 

 Crustacea of Ireland. " We have," says the latter gen- 

 tleman, " dredged it in Strangford Lough, in the open sea, 

 off Down, and on the Connaught coast. During some 

 weeks spent at Bangor, near the entrance of Belfast Bay, 

 in the autumn of 1835, I found this to be the most com- 

 mon species of Crab thrown by the waves upon the beach. 

 Mr. R. Ball mentions that the P. depurator is local, but 

 abundant where it does occur about Youghal." I have 



