THE DECAPOD CRUSTACEANS OF BEAUFORT, 

 N. C. AND THE SURROUNDING REGION. 



By W. P. HAY and C. A. SHORE. 



.3* 

 Contribution from the United States Fisheries Biological Station, Beaufort, N. C. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The following report on the decapod crustaceans of the region surrounding Beaufort, 

 N. C, was begun by the junior author in 1904, while a student in the University of North 

 Carolina, and was worked on actively for three years. During that time the crustacean 

 material which had accumulated at the United States fisheries laboratory was studied 

 and identified, much collecting was done and descriptions of most of the species known 

 to occur in the region were prepared for publication. An extensive series of photo- 

 graphs was also made for the purpose of illustrating the paper. 



At this point other duties intervened and made it necessary to permanently abandon 

 all hope of completing the report. 



In 1912 the senior author took up the work. It was hoped at first to bring the 

 paper to an early conclusion, but it soon became evident that several seasons' work 

 would be reqxiired to produce a satisfactory result. The nomenclature and synonymy 

 of the species already described had to be brought up to date, the rather extensive 

 collections of five or six years had to be worked over, and numerous additional descrip- 

 tions and photographs had to be prepared. As the work progressed it became clearly 

 evident that the needs of the student of crustaceans would be best served by the prepara- 

 tion of entirely new and uniform descriptions of all the species. Although this involved 

 the rewriting of all the descriptions of the junior author and the preparation of a new series 

 of photographs, the task was undertaken and pushed forward as rapidly as other duties 

 would permit. It is now brought to a conclusion with the belief that future collecting 

 will add but few species to the list. 



The growth of our knowledge of the crustac^n fauna of the Beaufort region 

 has been slow and extends over many years. The first collector, of whose work we have 

 a record, was WilUam Stimpson, who visited Beaufort, in company with T. N. Gill, 

 in 1 860. In his brief account of this trip" he gives a list of 38 species of decapod crusta- 

 ceans which he had collected. In 1871 Elliott Coues, at that time an Army surgeon, 

 stationed at Fort Macon, published the second of his " Notes on the fauna of Fort 

 Macon, N. C, and vicinity (No. 2)"^ which included a list of 27 species of decapods, 



a Amer. Jour. Sciences and Arts, series 2, vol. xxrx, p. 442-445. i860. 

 6 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil., vol. xxm, p. 120-124. 1871. 



