The Zoologist— February, 1874. 3845 



On the Occurrence of Limulus Polyphemus off the Coast of 

 Hollandy^ and on the Transmission of Aquarium Animals. 

 By W. A. Lloyd. 



In the summer of 1860 a large number of this creature, Limulus 

 Polyphemus, — the horse-shoe crab, or, as it is called in Germany, 

 the arrow-tailed crab, — was hawked about, in a living state, on a 

 barrow, in the streets of Hamburg, just as I have similarly seen 

 living land-tortoises offered for sale in the streets of London. These 

 crabs have the term "horse-shoe" applied to them because the 

 anterior portion (when the posterior part is bent away from it) 

 much resembles in general form the toe part of a horse's hoof, and 

 "arrow-tail" because the long posterior spine is said to be used by 

 the natives of the countries where it is found for the points of arrows 

 and spears ; the point of it precisely represents in its unsymmetrical 

 curve the curve of our modern bayonet of warfare. They are also 

 termed "king crabs," but I do not know why. Their position in 

 the scale of nature is not yet precisely determined. These crabs 

 so seen in Hamburg were obtained from North America by Mr. 

 Hagenbeck, the well-known German dealer in wild beasts and 

 other natural-history objects. They were purchased by many 

 persons, and some were placed in a small marine aquarium in the 

 Hamburg City Museum ; others were kept by Dr. Meyer and 

 Professor Mobius in some tanks I had made for them, as at that 

 time I was a dealer in aquaria in London. The interest excited 

 by these crabs and these small aquaria, joined to the interest 

 caused by the aquarium I had recently made in the Acclima- 

 tation Gardens in Paris, which was very popular as the greatest 

 and best aquarium then in existence, much advanced the idea of 

 having an aquarium in the Zoological Gardens of Hamburg, then in 

 the commencement of their formation, and all these things together 

 led to my being engaged for aquarium work in Hamburg in the 

 summer of 1862. Naturally enough, there existed a desire, from 

 association, to possess some of these crabs in the Hamburg Aqua- 

 rium when it was opened, and some arrived in 1865, and lived very 

 well, and were alive when I left Hamburg to return to England in 

 1870. They all came from New York or its neighbourhood, and 

 the success with which they were brought over led to my getting 



* See 'Zoologist,' S. S. 3740, and 'Entomologist,' vi. 529 (with figures). 

 SECOND SERIES — VOL. IX. G 



