DECAPOD CRUSTACEANS OF THE BEAUFORT, N. C, REGION. 42I 



Genus CALAPPA Weber. 

 Cdlappa Weber, 1795, p. 92; Fabricius, 1798, p. 309. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES OF THE BEAUFORT REGION. 



o. Posterior margin of carapace with only broad and shallow teeth. 



b. Carapace about two-thirds as long as wide; crest of hand eight or nine toothed flammea. 



bb. Carapace nearly as long as wide; crest of hand six or seven toothed angusta. 



aa. Posterior margin of carapace with a pair of spines near the middle sulcata. 



Calappa flasunea (Herbst). Box crabs. PI. xxxi, fig. 8. 



Cancer Jiammea Herbst, 1796, vol. n, p. 161. 



Calappa flammea Bosc, 1802, 1. 1, p. 185; Miers, 1886, p. 284; Rathbim, 1901. p. 84: Verrill, 1908, p. 420: Summer, 1916, 



p. 6&9: Fowler, 1912, p. iib. 

 Calappa marmcrata Latreille, 1803, p. 392; Kingsley, 1878-79, p. 324; ibid, 18800, p. 402, (not C. marmorala Fabridus). 



Carapace about two-thirds as long as wide, convex and granulate above, the granules larger toward 

 the front and grouped to form several longitudinal lines of nodules; front with a broad median notch, 

 projecting slightly beyond the orbits; anterolateral border crenulate, granulate and bluntly dentate; 

 posterolateral margins expanded into winglike extensions and with seven strong teeth with beaded edges; 

 posterior margin arcuate, its edge beaded. 



Chelipeds large, capable of being fitted closely against the front of the body; superior margin of 

 carpus and hand raised into a prominent crest which is coarsely granulate on the carpus and eight or 

 nine toothed on the hand; meros with a strong, foiu--toothed crest parallel with the outer distal border. 

 Walking legs capable of being completely hidden beneath the carapace. 



Color buff or light purple with dark purplish-brown lines forming a coarse reticulate pattern over 

 the anterior part of the carapace and thence radiating to the lateral and posterior borders. Carpus with 

 color markings continuous with those of the carapace. Hand light purple with a few dark blotches near 

 the upper part of the outer surface. Inner surface of cheliped largely dark red. Walking legs very 

 light pink. 



Measurements of a large male: Length, 86 mm.; width, 132 mm.; length of hand, 73 mm.; width 

 of hand, 58 mm. 



This crab, perhaps the most striking one of the region, does not often occxu" within the harbor, but is 

 not infrequently brought up in the dredge from a depth of a few fathoms outside the inlet. The speci- 

 mens seciu-ed in the harbor are usually less than 25 mm., in width; those obtained outside are usually 

 twice or three times as wide and on rare occasions an individual as large as the one whose measure- 

 ments are given is captured. 



The natural range of the species extends as far northward as Cape Hatteras but in the larval stages it 

 often drifts as far to the north as southern New England. Some of these are supposed to now and then 

 survive a mild winter and to develop by the next summer into the small specimens which have at rare 

 intervals been taken on the coasts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The larval stages have been 

 described and figured by S. I. Smith." 



Calappa angusta A. Milne-Edwards. PI. xxxi, fig. 7. 



Calappa angusta A. Milne-Edwards. i8So, p. i8. 



Carapace about eight-ninths as long as wide, tuberculate and granulate above, the tubercles placed 

 irregid.-irly except in the middle line where there are several in a row ; front depressed, deeply grooved in 

 the middle and marked off from the orbits by a groove on each side; anterolateral margin granulate; 

 posterolateral margin with one large tooth at the posterolateral angle in front of which are five or six 

 teeth of diminishing size; on the posterior margin there is one rather strong tooth immediately behind 

 the large tooth at the posterolateral angle and several smaller tubercles and granules. 



Chelipeds strong; hand indistinctly tuberculate in rows and with a high crest on the superior margin 

 the edge of which is divided into six or seven teeth; meros with a serrate, transverse crest on the outer 

 surface near the distal end. 



Length of a male, 17 mm.; width, 19 mm. 



« Trans. Conn. Acad. Arts and Sci. vol. iv, p. 263, 1880. 



