CRUSTACEA. 



1st legion, podophthalmata. 



ORDER DECAPODA. 



1st Section, Brachtuea. 



Genus StenorynchuS. 

 S. 2)halang'utm, Leach. 



This species has ah-eady been recorded by Templeton as " not uncommon 

 on the Irish coast," and by Mr. J. V. Thompson as " very abundant in the 

 deep water of the harbour of Cove." — Ent. 3Ia[/. vol. iii. p. 371. 



It has occurred very commonly to my scientific friends and myself 

 when dredging in the Loughs of Strangford and Belfast, 6 to 23 fathoms ; 

 and to Dr. Ball at the South Islands of Arran,* as well as at Youghal and 

 Dublin. The motions of this crab are slow, though its light body borne 

 on such long legs would be popularly believed to indicate considerable 

 powers of locomotion. The editor of the octavo edition of Pennant's 

 British Zoology (1812) remarks, that this crab " invests itself occasionally 

 in leaves of ftici to insnare its prey : " and Dr. Leach states that " it has 

 been observed by Dr. M'Culloch to be sometimes covered by fragments of 

 a species of the Linnjean genus Fuciis, which are attached to its body and 

 legs." The first statement seems to me fanciful. The presence of frag- 

 ments oifuci, &c., I should rather attribute to the spinous body, and the 

 bristly arms and legs of great length intercepting adventitious substances, 

 which in floating through the water come in contact with them, and (as 

 Dr. Ball reminds me) are further retained there by a viscid slime cover- 

 ing the animal. Many marine productions, however, both of a vegetable 

 and animal nature, have their birth and grow to beauty on the shell of 

 this as well as other species of our native Crustacea — corallines, sponges, 



* On diiferent parts of the western coast — ^Westport, Clifden, and Killeries — 

 it was dredged by us in 1840. 



t I have recently had several specimens of the .S. phalangmni in confine- 

 ment ; some of those when captured were ornamented with portions of zoophytes 

 or algfe. I have had the opportunity of observing the process of decoration 

 adopted, and it appears to be a daily operation in the marine vivaria.j In the 

 Zoological Gardens, Phoenix Park, some of these crabs were kept in a tank in 

 which the Enteromorpha intestinalis was cultivated ; ui this they are to be 

 observed tearing off with their larger claws small portions of the Alga : these 

 portions they appear to masticate at one end with their jaws for a little time, 

 and then attach to some one or other leg by means of the pincer claws ; thus the 

 viscid attaching matter would seem to come from the jaws of the animal. A 

 similar proceeding has been observed when the crab was confined with Ulva 

 latissima.—R. B., Dec. 16, 1854. 



