1899.] MR. L. A. BOUR-VDAILB OX TUB PAGURINE LANJJ-CBABS. OS?' 



pliractiis, a Python, 3 Ci/clcDiorbis senegale^isis, 2 Hinged Tortoises, 

 some Chameleons, and a Serval Cat were brought home alive. 



Since my return to England, I have definitely decided that 

 the eggs and larvte obtained are not those of Pohjpterus. I have, 

 however, I believe, learned enough about the habits o£ Pohjptenis 

 to encourage me to make a second attempt next year to obtain the 

 developmental stages. 



In conclusion, I wish to thank the Society for lending me 

 influence and support, without which the little that has beeu 

 done by this expedition could not have been accomplished. 



2. A Note on the Hatching-stage of the Pagurine Land- 

 crabs. By L. A. BoRRADAiLE, M. A., F.Z.S., Lecturer in 

 Natural Sciences of Selwyn College, Cambridge. 



[Eeceived October 12, 1899.] 



The life-history of the Land-crabs of the family CcenobitidcO is 

 one to which considerable interest attaches, and of which, at present, 

 nothing appears to be known. The family comprises the genera 

 Birgus and Coenobita, the robber- or coconut-crab and the land 

 hermit-crabs, all of which have given up a sea life for one on land. 

 It need hardly be remarked that changes in habitat, particularly 

 from sea to land or fresh water, have frequently necessitated the 

 suppression of larval stages in the life-history. Among Crusta- 

 ceans the instances of the cray-fishes, the ditch-prawn {Pal<jemonetes 

 varians), the freshwater crabs (Fotamon), and at least one species 

 of land-crab (Gccarcimis) come at once to mind. The pos- 

 sibility was thus suggested that the land-pagurines might also 

 have lost the whole or a part of their larval life, and leave the egg 

 in something like the adult condition. On the other hand, it had 

 to be borne in mind that some species of land-crabs and all 

 the strand-crabs {Ocypoda, &c.) retain the habit of setting free 

 zoaea-larvae in the sea, where they pass through their earlier 

 stages. 



It was probably with these considerations in his mind that 

 von Willemoes-Suhm, when, in October 1874, the ' Challenger ' 

 arrived at Zamboanga in the Philippine Islands, wished to inves- 

 tigate the development of the robber-crab from the egg. Unfor- 

 tunately the time of year rendered it impossible for him to do this, 

 but he was told by an " intelligent native" that the young were 

 born resembling the parent. This statement has since been ac- 

 cepted in a tentative manner by certain text-books, in spite of the 

 fact that the small size of the eggs (and, indeed, of the female 

 genital opening) made it improbable that the development was a 

 direct one, depending on food-yolk. As for the statement of the 



