298 DISTRIBUTION AND ETIOLOGY OF THE CRAYFISHES. 
specimens of English and Irish crayfishes which have 
passed through my hands, have all presented the charac- 
ter of Astacus torrentiwm, with which also the description 
given in works of recognised authority coincides as far as 
it goes.* The same form is found in many parts of 
France, as far south as the Pyrenees, and it is met with 
as far east as Alsace and Switzerland. I have recently + 
been enabled, by the kindess of Dr. Bolivar, of Madrid, 
who sent me a number of crayfishes from the neighbour- 
hood of that city, to satisfy myself that the Spanish 
peninsula contains crayfishes altogether similar to those 
of Britain, except that the subrostral spine is less de- 
veloped. Further, I have no doubt that Dr. Hellert is 
right in his identification of the English crayfish with 
a form which he describes under the name of A. 
saxatilis. He says that it is especially abundant in 
Southern Europe, and that it occurs in Greece, in 
Dalmatia, in the islands of Cherso and Veglia, at Trieste, 
in the Lago di Garda, and at Genoa. Further, Astacus 
torrentium appears to be widely distributed in North 
Germany. The eastern limit of this crayfish is uncertain; 
but, according to Kessler,§ it does not occur within the 
limits of the Russian empire. 
* See Bell. “ British Stalk-eyed Crustacea,” p. 237. 
+ Since the statement respecting the occurrence of crayfishes in Spain 
on p. 44 was printed. 
t “Die Crustaceen des Siidlichen Europas,” 1863. 
§ “Die Russischen Flusskrebse.” Bulletin de la Société Impériale 
des Naturalistes de Moscow, 1874. 
