THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 147 



NOTE ON THE OCCURRENCE OF THE EUROPEAN 

 CRAB, GARCINUS MMNAS, Leach, IN PORT PHILLIP. 



By Sydney W. Fulton and F. E. Grant. 

 {Read before the Field Naturalists' 1 Club of Victoria, \9th Nov., 1900.) 

 Included in a series of specimens of Crustaceans collected by us 

 in Port Phillip this spring were a number of forms which we were 

 unable to identify with the description of any recorded Aus- 

 tralian species. The local museum collection not being then avail- 

 able for comparison, we forwarded some of these to Mr. G. M. 

 Thomson, of Dunediri, a well-known worker in the Crustacea, who 

 had kindly promised to assist us by checking identification. He 

 writes as follows : — "These specimens are most interesting, and 

 want carefully going into. I think it is the common English shore 

 crab, Carcinus mcenas, and if so, how comes it to be on your 

 coast, and where does it occur ? If it is all over the coast it is 

 probably indigenous ; but if so, why has it not been described 

 before ? If it is local in distribution it may have been introduced, 

 and if so, how ? There is no great difficulty in its being intro- 

 duced, say in ballast, &c, for it is most abundant in the old 

 country. This wants all most careful working out — first, of 

 course, the identification, and next the distribution." 



Through the kindness of Professor Spencer and Mr. J. A. Kershaw 

 we have since had our specimens compared with named examples in 

 the Australian Museum in Sydney. We also forwarded specimens 

 to Mr. A. Zeitz, of the South Australian Museum, who writes 

 us : — " The occurrence of Carcinus mcenas on the Australian coast 

 is new to me. While reading your letter through I could not 

 make myself familiar with this fact without thinking that it must 

 have been somehow introduced. The two specimens you have 

 sent to me leave not the slightest doubt about the correctness 

 of your identification. If you had told me that they had come 

 from Europe I would have never doubted it. I have compared 

 them with specimens which I have collected myself in the Baltic 

 Sea and North Sea, and I can say that I am very familiar with 

 this Crustacean." 



We have also carefully compared them with the detailed de- 

 scription and with the plate given in Bell's " History of the British 

 Stalked-eyed Crustaceans," 1853, with both of which they agree, 

 and there can be no doubt as to the identity of the species. 



We have found this crab plentifully distributed along the 

 beaches and rocky points as far as Frankston on the one side 

 and to Portarlington on the other (and learn from the fisherman 

 that it is frequently caught in their nets), its general habitat 

 agreeing closely with that given in Bell's work above referred to. 



A paper was published in the journal of the Royal Dublin 

 Society, vol. i., p. in, 1856, entitled "Remarks on the Habits and 



