THE BLUE CRAB PIERS. 83 



The Blue Crab (Callinectes sapidus Rathbun): Extension 

 OF ITS Range Northward to near Halifax, Nova 

 Scotia. — By Harry Piers, Curator of the Provincial 

 Museum of Nova Scotia, Halifax, 



(Read 19 January, 1920.) 



Callinectes sapidus, the Blue or Common Edible Crab of the 

 Atlantic coast of the United States, and the only northern 

 form of the genus, was, until 1895, known as Liipa (Callinectes) 

 hastatus of Say. It is not the Lupa hastata of Desmarest, and 

 therefore was assigned its present name by Miss Mary J. Rath- 

 bun in a paper on "The Genus Callinectes" (Proc. U. S. Nat. 

 Museum, vol. 18, p. 349, Wash., 1895). It belongs to the 

 family Portunidae (the swimming Crabs), which is distinguished 

 by the last pair of periopods (legs) being broad and flattened 

 at the end, thus forming effective paddles for propulsion. 



Range. — Up to now the most northern locality from which 

 it has been recorded is Millpond, an inlet of Salem Harbour, 

 Massachusetts, U. S. A., where a single individual was taken as 

 recorded by C. Cooke in the American Naturalist, vol. 1, p. 52, 

 1867. It is occasionally found in Massachussetts Bay (Smith, 

 Rept. U. S. Com. Fish and Fisheries for 1871-2, p. 548, 1874). 

 It is common in bays and at the mouths of rivers from Cape 

 Cod, Mass., to the northern extremity of Texas, and is especially 

 abundant in Chesapeake Bay, where it is the basis of an ex- 

 tensive industry. Specimens have been taken also in the Ber- 

 mudas, Jamacia, and Brazil; but outside of the region from 

 Cape Cod to Texas it is of rare occurrence. Dr. J. F. Whiteaves 

 makes no reference to it in his Catalogue of Marine Inverte- 

 brates of Eastern Canada, Ottawa, 1901, nor do any later writers 

 mention its occurrence north of Salem Harbour. Dr. A. G. 

 Huntsman of the Biological Board of Canada informs me that 

 they have never obtained it in any of their investigations along 

 the Atlantic coast, and he knows of no reference to its occurrence 

 in Canadian waters. Mr. William Macintosh, curator of the 

 Museum of the Natural History Society of New Brunswick, 

 St. John, tells me that he has no record of its having been taken 

 along the New Brunswick coast. 



Habitat. — It occurs on muddy shores and bottoms, down to 

 deep water, and among eelgrass, being particularly abundant 

 in bays and in the brackish waters of estuaries; and has even 



Proc. & Trass. N. S. Inst.Sci., Vol. XX. Tr.v\s. 7. 



