DECAPOD CRUSTACEANS OF THE BEAUFORT, N. C, REGION. 429 



Color, chocolate brown, with cloudings of olive green and irregular white spots. 

 A pelagic form, living among Sargassum, and not infrequently carried by the currents into the 

 harbor. Quite a number of the specimens taken at Beaufort were egg-bearing. 



Portunus (AcheloUs) spinimanus Latreille. PI. xxxni, fig. 4. 



Poriunus spinimanus Latreille, 1819, p. 47. 



A ckdoUs spinimanus DeHaan, 1833, p. 8; Coues, 1871, p. 120; Kingsley, 1878-79, p. 320 (spinimana); Verrill, 1908, p. 385. 



Lupa spinimana Stimpson, 1859, p. 57. 



Portunus (Achelous) spinimanus Rathbun, 1901, p. 45. 



Achelous smitkii Verrill, 1908, p. 386, figs. 32 and 33. 



Carapace considerably less than twice as wide as long, finely granulate and pubescent and with a 

 number of prominent, curved, coarsely granulate, transverse ridges; frontal teeth 8, including the inner 

 orbitals, each of which is notched at the summit and presents two points; the 2 middle teeth are slightly 

 narrower and more advanced than the next pair and all are considerably more advanced than the 

 inner orbitals; outer orbital teeth obtuse , not much larger than the teeth of the anterolateral borders 

 which are strong, acute, or acuminate and of about one size except the last, which is about twice as large a, 

 the others and usually curved forward. 



Chclipeds long, pubescent, and serratogranulate all over; meros with four, sometimes five, strong, 

 curved spines in front and one at the distal end ; carpus with two spines, the inner one much the stronger, 

 and on the upper surface four conspicuous ridges; hand slender, all its surfaces with ridges which extend 

 onto the fingers; a strong spine at the carpal articulation and another near the base of the movable finger; 

 fingers nearly straight, the tips inciu-ved. 



Length of a male, 31 mm.; width, 52 mm. 



Color, yellowish or reddish brown, ridgesof carapace, spines of chelipeds and fingers and tipsof legs 

 red, fingers with white blotches. 



This species, which bears a general resemblance to Poriunus gibbesii, is not uncommon in the waters 

 off Beaufort Inlet and is sometimes foimd in the deeper channels of the harbor. The two species are 

 quite often found in company, as they doubtless require the same conditions, but may be readily dis- 

 tinguished by the narrower, rounder form of P. spinimanus and the entire lack of the iridescent 

 patches on the carapace mentioned in the description of P. gibbesii. 



In his paper on the decapod crustaceans of Bermuda, Verrill has described a subspecies, smiihii, 

 which he states has been collected at Fort Macon, off Hatteras, and at other points farther south. It 

 has been pointed out by Dr. Mary J. Rathbun <! that Achelous smiihii Verrill was based upon a misinter- 

 pretation of a figure by A. Milne-Edwards * of an immatixre swimming crab said to have come from 

 Chile and identified by Edwards as Portunus spinimamus. 



It may easily be that the figure in question does not represent P. spinimanus of Latreille at all 

 It may even be that Latreille, Leach, and various other early writers confoimded two or more species 

 under this name, though this seems imlikely , but the Lupa, or Achelous, spinimanus of Stimpson, .Smith, 

 Kingsley, and various others was unquestionably the same as the one to which the name is here 

 applied. 



Portunus (Achelous) spinicarpus Stimpson. PI. xxxni, fig. 3. 



AcJielous spinicarpus Stimpson, 1871, p. 148. 

 Neplunus spinicarpus A. Alilne-Edwards, 1879, p. 221. 

 Portunus (AcheloUs) spinicarpus Rathbun, 1901, p. 47. 



Carapace slightly more than twice as wide as long, sculpttu-ed, with a number of naked, rather 

 coarsely granulate, arching, transverse ridges between which the shell is finely granulate and pubescent; 

 frontal teeth 6, including the inner orbitals, the outer margins of which are sinuate but not notched; 

 the true frontal teeth are narrow, acute , separated by broad notches, and the median pair is considerably 

 advanced beyond the others; external orbital tooth acute and larger than the neighboring teeth of 

 the anterolateral margin; the latter vary somewhat in size, are concave sided and very acute, the 

 eighth tooth has the form of a slender, forwardly curving spine more than half as long as the antero- 

 lateral border; posterolateral angle sharp, the margin being slightly reciu-ved. 



oProc. U. S. Nat. Mus.. vol. xxxvni, 577 (footnote), 1910. i>Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat., Paris, vol. X, pi. 32. 1S61. 



69571°— 18 28 



