86 



SEA-SHORE LIFE 



yellow eye-like spots on tlie sides of the second and sixth ahdomi- 

 nal rings. The broad tail flappers are richly banded with lihie, 

 yellow and brown. This lobster is a timid creature, and relies upon 

 its sharp s])ines for jn-otection. If the feelers or legs be seized they 

 are quickly thrown olf, and then regenerate, developing only after 

 the moults, ivhen the shell is soft. It becomes fully two feet in 

 length, and is an active swimmer, being 

 enabled to dart raj^idly backward by the 

 powerfid strokes of its large tail flappers. 

 A closely related sj^ecies called ( Pann- 

 liriis intei-fiijiUia) is found on the coast of 

 California. 



The Snapping Prawns, fAljilienaJ. 

 Tlicre are about tweh'e s]iecies ol these 

 little lol)ster-]ike crustaceans Avhich range 

 on our coast from Bra/al to Virginia. The 

 largest are not more than one and thi'ee- 

 quarters of an inch long. C)ne claw is 

 much larger than tlie otlier, and is pro- 

 vided with a sharp-edged blade which is 

 noi'nially held out at right angles to the 

 claw. At the least alarm this blade is 

 closed with a sharp snap reminding one 

 of the explosion of a small torpedo. These 

 little creatures live in crevices of coral reefs, under shells or stones, 

 and fairly swarm in sponges; so that, when a sponge is lifted from 

 the water it crackles as if Idled with minute firecrackers. The 

 report is so sharp that if one of these little prawns be placed in a 

 glass aqnai'iuni jai', one is deceived into supposing that the glass 

 has suddenl}' broken. They are inveterate fighters, and if two be 

 placed in the same acpiarium one or the other will ciuickty be dis- 

 mendjered and devdured. The eggs are carried aliout attached to 

 the abdominal apisendages of the female, and after hatching they 

 swim through the ocean, and moult a number of times before assum- 

 ing their final aljixle within a sjionge nr under dead shells, etc. 



Aljjliens 8aiiletji is a small species, from five-eighths to one and 

 twii-tliirds inches long, which lives within sponges off the Florida 

 coast and Dahamas. The body is translucent brown or green, and 

 the upper surface of the great claw is vermilliou. 



. s/: SNAI'riXC-l'llAW N. 

 Jijj Coral Roi'ks at Tortu- 

 £:as Florida, 



