﻿Field and Forest 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



DEVOTED TO THE NATURAL SCIENCES. 



Vol. II.— NOVEMBER, 1876.— No. 5. 



The Edible Crab of Maryland, &c. 



Callinectes hastatus, Orel way. 



During several Summer excursions to various parts of the ocean 

 coast and bays of Maryland and Virginia my attention has been di- 

 rected to the female crabs of the genus Callinectes carrying sponge (as 

 the fishermen and sailors call it) in a large bunch, or mass, beneath the 

 hinder part of the body. This spongy mass consists of hundreds of 

 thousands of minute eggs, resembling the roe of fish, densely packed 

 together, filling the whole space between the extended tip of the ab- 

 domen and the second sternite. This mass is very conspicuous, even 

 in the rapidly swimming crab, and causes the abdominal flap (called 

 apron by the fisherman) to be opened almost to its fullest extent. 



In a crab which measured 6 inches in width by 23^ inches in length, 

 the bunch was 2}^ inches across, 1 ^ inches wide, and i}( inches 

 thick. The smallest female observed with eggs was 4}4 inches across 

 by 2 inches in length, and the egg-mass measured 1^ inches across by 

 1^ inches in width and 1 inch in thickness. Some gigantic females 

 measured as much as 9 inches between the tips of the shell. 



At first the eggs are of an amber-yellow color, translucent and ad- 

 here with great tenacity to the long slender fibres of the abdominal 

 legs. They are spherical and about one fifth of a millemetre in diam- 

 eter ; and after the young embryo has advanced in maturity, the mass 

 becomes more opaque and of a dull rust-brown color. At this time, 

 also, two minute black specks make their appearence at one end of 

 each egg, which indicate the place of the future eyes. 



