LtECAPODA. 369 



zoophytes, algae, &c., may thus be found. Balani occasionally cover the 

 entire upper surface of the body of the crab. 



Auy. 22, 1840. — On oi)ening a thornback [Raia clavata), about 20 inches 

 in length, caught in Belfast Bay, I found its stomach entirely filled with 

 S. phalangiiim. 



S. tenuirostris, Leach. 



On examining some fine Stenorhynchi dredged in Belfast Bay, from a 

 depth of 20 to 23 fathoms (shelly sand), in Oct., 1846, by Mr. Hyndman, I 

 found that like specimens obtained there, but from a much less depth, some 

 years before, had more characters in common with this species than with 

 S. phahmijium. The rosti'um, though longer than in the latter, — 3 lines 

 in length in a specimen whose carapace from its base to the hinder ex- 

 tremity is 10 lines, — is not of the extreme length of that of S. tenuirostris : 

 — instead of being " longer than the peduncle of the external antenna^," 

 it is not so long. But " the series of minute spines on the inner part of 

 the arm, the body altogether more elongated, and the spines more acute," 

 than in S. phahuir/ium, mark my specimens as S. tenuirostris. 



The preceding notes were made on a comparison of these examples 

 with the descriptions of Leach and Bell. Having subsequently taken 

 specimens to London and compared them with those in the British 

 Museum described by Leach, the result was the same. I therefore look 

 upon S. tenuirostris and <S'. phnlaiu/inni — although extreme forms are very 

 distinctly marked — to be in reality but one species. It may be added, 

 that in one of the two Irish examples of what 1 have called S. tvnuirostris 

 taken to the British Museum, the wrist has the form attributed to that 

 species, and in the other, that attributed to S. phalangiiim. Both of these 

 individuals were added to that collection. The Sten. Ec/yjytins. Edw., it 

 need hardly be remarked, is quite different from those under considera- 

 tion ; it is alluded to in consequence of being the only other species of 

 the genus. 



The questions occur : — is the iS'. tenuirostris a deep-water, a local, or a 

 geographical variety ? The following remarks, though all that can be 

 given, have not any very definite bearing on these points. Leach men- 

 tions it as a very common inhabitant of all the deep water off the coast 

 of South Devon. Couch in his Cornish Fauna, part 1, p. 64, states that 

 it is " common at the depth of from 2 to 20 fathoms." M. Edwards says 

 of S. lonyirostris, Fabr. (sp.), which he makes synonymous with .S. 

 tenuirostris, Leach, — but Mr. Bell thinks that they may be distinct, — that 

 it inhabits the Manche and the INIediterranean. 



(S. phalanffium is noted by Leach as " very common in the mouths of 

 rivers and in estuaries." Couch has never met with it on the coast of 

 Cornwall. M. Edwards notes it as very common on the coasts of the 

 Manche and the Ocean. 



Oct. \OfJi, 1851. — Stenorhiptchits plialanyium. — I found one cast ashore 

 to-day on the beach North of Newcastle. 



Chmns AcH.'EUS. 

 A. Cranchii, Leach. 

 In the collection of Crustacea formed by Mr. J. V. Thompson, and now 

 in the possession of the Royal Dublin Society, is a native specimen of 

 this crab, which, we may presume, was obtained on the southern coast. 

 Cove, Cork Fauna. 



2 B 



