A. E. Verrill-^Decapod Crustacea of Bermuda. 



307 



have a stridulating organ, consisting of a vertical series of short 

 raised lines of tubercles on a narrow ridge. It is doubtless used for 

 a sexual call. The ambulatory legs are fringed with long yellow 

 hairs. 



The color of the adults at Bermuda, in life, is mostly pale yellow, 

 straw-color, or yellowish white, imitating closely the color of the 

 beaches of yellowish white shell-sand on which it lives. Those 



Figure 1. — Ocypode arenarius, about ^3 nat. size, after photo, by A. H. Verrill. 



young specimens that we found living on the coast of New Jersey, 

 in spring, were "pepper-and-salt color," imitating closely the colors 

 of the silicious (granitic) sand of the beaches. When pursued they 

 would run very rapidly, often suddenly stopping and squatting so 

 closely in the sand that they could be easily overlooked. 



Its common name, " ghost-crab," alludes both to its pale color and 

 nocturnal habits. It can run very swiftly on the sandy beaches. It 

 lives in deep burrows near or above high tide. 



Measurements in millimeters. 



Eye- 

 stalks 

 length 



16 

 16 



16 



15.5 



Locality 

 Bermuda 



Ft. Macon 

 Bermuda 



Its range, in the adult state, is from Virginia to Brazil, but the 

 free-swimming young [megalojys) are carried much farther north in 

 the Gulf Stream and often arrive alive on the southern coasts of New 

 England. 



Prof. S. I. Smith* has recorded the frequent occurrence of the 

 fall grown megalops of this species in Long Island Sound and on the 



*Amer. Journ. Science (3), vol vi, p. 67, 1875; and Trans. Conn. Acad. Sci., 

 iv, p. 255, 1880. 



