10 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



posterior margin, which is also nearly straight. The abdominal 

 segments are seven in number in both sexes, those of the male 

 tapering off after the third segment, whilst those of the female are, 

 as usual, much broader on account of the protection required for 

 the ova. 



The external antennae are long, and the third joint longer 

 than the second ; the internal antennae are club-shaped. The 

 anterior pair of legs are very powerful in comparison with the 

 size of the animal, thick and somewhat cylindrical in form. 

 Perhaps the most remarkable feature in connection with them is, 

 that one anterior claw is almost always nearly twice the size 

 of the other, and that this disparity is not constant, for in some 

 cases the right and in others the left claw is the larger. This 

 does not appear to be the result of difference in sex, or locality, 

 but is apparently a chance phenomenon. The remaining pairs of 

 legs are rather plano-convex in form, the convex surface, of course, 

 being the upper one. They are very hairy. 



The colour of this species is usually of a warm reddish brown, 

 with paler speckled markings. The forceps are pale brown. Like 

 many others, the colour of this crab seems to be modified in 

 some degree by the locality inhabited by the animal. Some 

 specimens that we obtained from Weymouth were all of the tint 

 referred to by Bell as occasionally occurring; whilst others that we 

 obtained from the Sussex coast were reddish brown, and in some 

 instances very pale. Here we have two different localities, not only 

 geologically, but in the development of their marine flora, and 

 hence possibly the variation in this, as in many other species. 



Piliimnus hirtellus is with ova during the summer months. 

 The eggs are yellowish when first exuded, becoming darker in 

 colour as they mature ; they are exuded in the arly summer 

 months in warm localities, but later in less favourable places. 

 Bell mentions that he only found one female, and that dead and 

 mutilated, among twenty or thirty specimens. We have, how- 

 ever, obtained a number of specimens of this sex from various 

 localities. 



This crab, though well distributed, is evidently a frequenter 

 of warm areas ; not only is it found on our southern and western 

 coasts, but it is a fact to be noticed that the finest specimens we 

 have ever seen were from the Channel Islands and the Devonshire 

 and Dorsetshire coasts. 



