DECAPODA. 173 
winter months in its retreat without leaving it, and only visits the 
sea when about to spawn*. 
OcYPODE, Fabr. 
Eyes extending into the greater part of the length of their pedicles, 
or claviform ; third joint of the external foot-jaws forming a long 
square; tail of the males very narrow, and the last joint an elongated 
triangle ; that of the females is oval. 
The claws are nearly similar, strong, but short, and the forceps 
shaped like a reversed heart. Agreeably to the indication afforded 
by their generic name, these Crustacea run with great swiftness, 
which indeed is such, that a horse can scarcely overtake them, whence 
the name of Eques, given to them by the older naturalists. They 
are now sometimes termed Land-Crabs, and occasionally, naturalists 
have confounded them with the Gecarcini, under the general deno- 
mination of Tourlouroux. The Ocypodes, during the day, remain in 
the holes or burrows they have excavated in the sand, near the sea- 
shore, and quit them after sun-set. 
Ocyph. eques; Cancer cursor, L. ; Cancer eques, Bel.; 
Ocyph. ippeus, Oliv., Voy. dans I’Emp. Ottom., II, xxx, 1. Dis- 
tinguished from all the others by the bundle of hairs, which ter- 
minate the ocular pedicles. It inhabits the coast of Syria, that of 
Africa bordering on the Mediterranean, and is even found at 
Cape de Verd. In the 
Ocyp. cerathophthalmus ; Cancer cerathopt., Pall., Spic. Zook, 
fasc. IX, V, 2 — 8 , the superior extremity of these pedicles ex- 
tends beyond the eyes for more than a third of their whole 
length, in a conical and simple point. The forceps are codiform, 
very rough, and their cutting edge dentated. From the East 
Indies. 
In others the pedicles are terminated by the eyes forming a sort of 
club. Some from the eastern continent, and all those of the western 
world, are thus formed ; but the latter possess a peculiar character, 
which indicates more acquatic habits, or that they swim with more 
facility; their feet are smoother, flatter, and furnished with a fringe of 
hairs. Such is the 0. blanc, Bose. Hist. Nat. des Crust , I, 1. The 
Cuniuru of Maregrave belongs to this divisionf . 
In classing the collection of the Museum d’Histoire Naturelle, we 
placed among the Ocypodes, under the specific name of quadridentata, 
a crustaceous animal, which appears to us to bear a close resemblance 
* See the article Gelasime, Nouv. Diet. d’Hist. Nat., Ed. II, and tlie same article 
in the work of Desmarest on animals of that class. The Crabs, cietie-ete, cietie- 
panama, of Maregrave, appear to me synonymous with the Gelashnus piigilator. 
According to the obssrvations of M. Marion, communicated to the Acad. Roy. des 
Sc., by M. de Blaiuville, this inequality of the forceps is peculiar to the males, at 
least such was the case in all the numerous specimens examined by him in his voyage 
to the East Indies. 
+ For the Ocypodes of the Western Continent, see the observations of M. Say, 
Journ. Ac. Nat. Sc. Philad. His Ocyp. reticutatus is a Grapsus. Consult, also, the 
article Ocypode, Nouv. Diet. d’Hist Nat., and the work of M. Desmarest. 
