A HISTORY OF KENT 



the superincumbent reservoir of water, while the arrangement of hairs is 

 such as to constitute a sieve, keeping the sand away from the respira- 

 tory organs.' ' 



The reader will no doubt perceive that the current entering from 

 above, can, after bathing the branchiae, soak, away as it pleases into the 

 surrounding sand, but the sand however moist would not supply a stream 

 which the crab could pump upwards. Bell allots this species to Kent 

 among other localities, saying, 'in May, 1843, at Sandgate, I took a 

 single specimen with the dredge, and on the following day ten more in 

 the shrimp-trawl ; these were all females.' " The Handbook to Dover 

 says 'Corystes cassivelaunus, the helmet crab, is not uncommon in East- 

 wear Bay, where it burrows in the sand ; it is occasionally found also in 

 Dover Bay, and probably all round the coast in suitable localities.' 



The section Catometopa, ' with front deflexed,' is poorly repre- 

 sented in the annals of Kent. It would be altogether unrepresented but 

 for the above-mentioned Handbook, which remarks that Pinnotheres ptsiim, 

 the little pea crab, lives within the shells of living mussels in amicable 

 friendship.' This would seem to imply that some friendships are not 

 amicable, and perhaps the epithet was added expressly to rebut the 

 stories which accuse pea-crabs of maltreating their hosts. Whatever 

 •their generic name may impute, they really do not hunt the pinna. 

 They do not place malicious pebbles between the valves of casually 

 gaping oysters. There is not the slightest proof that they make their 

 meals of these or any other molluscs. In this genus the carapace of 

 the female is remarkably soft. The external maxilHpeds have the 

 terminal joint attached, not as usual end to end with the preceding 

 joint, but to the middle of that joint's front margin. 



The section Oxyrrhyncha, or ' sharp beaks,' have the carapace 

 narrowed in front, and usually produced into a rostrum. Several species 

 have been noticed in this county. All of them come under the popular 

 designation of spider-crabs. Macropodia rostrata (Linn.) may be accepted 

 on the authority of Mr. E. Lovett, who, using a preoccupied generic 

 name, now discarded, says that "■ Stenorhyncus rostratus is common in the 

 Thames Estuary.' ^ M. tenuirostris (Leach) is vouched for from Whit- 

 stable by Messrs. Hardy and Oakden under the name ' Stenorhyncbiis 

 tenuirostris^ ' Pisa tetraodon occurs at the Nore,' according to Lovett.' 

 For this the more correct name is Blastus tetraodon (Pennant). Of 

 Hyas araneus (Linn.) Leach says, ' this species is very common on 

 the coasts of Scotland and Kent. . . . The young is frequently found 

 inhabiting pools of water amongst the rocks at low tide, and is often 

 covered with fragments of marine plants, which adhere to the hairs of 

 the legs and shell ; in this state it has been observed on the coast of 

 Perthshire, near Montrose, by G. Milne, Esq., and on that of Kent, 



« Journal of the Marine Biological Association, new ser. iv. 231 (1S96). 



' British Stalk-eyed Crustacea, p. 161. 



' 7he Essex Naturalist, xi. 252 (1900). 



« Journal of the Quekett Microscopical Club, ser. 2, iv. 328 (1889). 



» Essex Nat. xi. 253. 



242 



