CRUSTACEANS 



In this order, as in the Brachyura, we find our list containing a dozen species, here certainly 

 as there doubtfully thirteen to the dozen, which owe their initiative to Montagu and Leach. Of 

 Eupagurus prideaux Leach tells us that 'it inhabits the sea on the southern coast of Devon, 

 and is most common in the Sound of Plymouth,' as also that ' Mr. Prideaux has observed 

 it in a vast variety of habitations, even in the tubes of the Dentalia and in the shell 

 of Scaphander lignarius.' ^ In accordance with the above statement, my friend Mr. Rupert 

 Vallentin has sent me a very small, perfectly straight specimen, lodged in a Dentalium shell. 

 Mr. Holt records a specimen which had an Adamna polypus upon its shell as well as the 

 normal A. palliata, and Mr. Pace remarks that occasionally the shell is invested with a colony of 

 Hydractinia echinata in place of the Adamsia palliata, and very rarely both are present upon the same 

 shell.' Mr. Parfitt informs us that Anapagurus Hyndmanni was dredged by Mr. Boswarva near 

 Plymouth : ' spawn silver green.' * The same writer, discussing Porcellana longicornis, says, 

 'Amongst some annelids dredged ofFSalcombe in the coralline zone by Mr. Walker (Sept. 1865), 

 was a minute specimen of this species ; the carapace was only one line in length. Notwithstanding 

 its diminutive size, its abdomen was full of eggs ! The hairs fringing the hands of this species are 

 strong yellowish bristles longitudinally striate, and thickly set with short, red, stiffish seta [setae], 

 directed upwards towards the point of the bristle.' * Concerning Galathea squamifera. Leach, who 

 adopts Montagu's manuscript name for it, explains that ' This elegant species of Galathea was 

 discovered by Montagu on the southern coast of Devon, where it occurs in very great abundance. 

 Young specimens generally have a white line running down their back, and in this state they are 

 frequently taken by the dredge in deep water. It may be found under stones at low tide on all 

 the rocky shores of Southern Devon from Plymouth to Torquay.'' From this species Leach 

 thought himself obliged to separate a specimen of uncertain habitat, which he named Galathea 

 fabricii, noting especially that ' the fingers of the fore-feet are more bent than in Galathea 

 squamifera.^ * The same peculiarity, probably due to advancing age in the crustacean, induced 

 Spence Bate to give this species yet another synonym in the significant name G. digitidistans. 



Among Montagu's numerous discoveries few have excited greater interest than that of 

 Callianassa subterranea. After a full description, which is too long for quotation here, he remarks, 

 ' This new and curious species of crab was discovered in digging for Solen Vagina, at the depth of 

 nearly two feet beneath the surface, on a sand bank in the estuary of Kingsbridge. It is by no means 

 plentiful ; but a sufficient number has been taken, with much trouble, to learn that the large arm 

 is not constant to one side, nor always so very disproportionate as in that from which the figure 

 was taken. The crustaceous covering of the body is very thin, and not far remote from mem- 

 branaceous. The females, as in most of the Cancer tribe, more rarely occur ; the ova of one 

 taken were fixed under the tail, and of a red colour.' ' He uses the terms crab and Cancer in the 

 old unrestricted sense, and partly for that reason his dictum as to the comparative rarity of female 

 crustaceans eludes criticism ; but with regard to the difficulty of procuring specimens of Callianassa 

 in the Kingsbridge or Salcombe estuary many naturalists have found cause for regretful sympathy 

 with his statement. After describing Upogebia stellata, he says, ' This species, which I am inclined 

 to believe is also a nondescript, was taken with the preceding ; it is more rare, but appears, like 

 that crab, to inhabit the subterraneous passages made by the Solenes.' * Subsequent research has 

 found this species not more but less rare than its companion. Leach in one place, probably by 

 inadvertence, robs Montagu of the credit of first finding this species, saying, ' Gebia stellata was 

 discovered by Mr. Gibbs in the Kingsbridge estuary ; it has likewise been taken on some of the 

 shores of Plymouth sound, under the mud in which it makes winding horizontal passages, often 

 of an hundred feet or more in length.' He also establishes a species Gebia deltaura, concerning 

 which he observes, ' This species lives with Gebia stellata, with which it was confounded until the 

 distinctions were discovered by Mr. J. D. C. Sowerby.' ° The length of the galleries and 

 Sowerby's distinctions alike await corroboration. Mr. R. A. Todd says, 'none of those we 

 followed were more than two or three feet long.' [Journ. Mar. Biol. Assoc, (new ser.), vi. 201.) 

 Norman, however, speaks of the ' long galleries ' in which he observed the curious commensalism 

 between this crustacean and the little flattened mollusc Lepton squamosum (Montagu).^" Parfitt 

 follows Leach in making Gibbs the discoverer of Upogebia, and mistakenly asserts that ' Colonel 

 Montagu does not say where he obtained ' Callianassa subterranea, but he himself supplies the 

 following information of interest about it : 'In the original drawing of this species now before me 

 there is a quadrate black spot on the base of the third abdominal segment above, and there are 



' Make. Pod. Brit, text to pi. xxvi, figs. 5, 6 (i Nov. 18 15). 



» Journ. Mar. Biol. Assoc, vii, 253. ' Trans. Devon. Assoc, iv, 186. 



« Ibid. ' Malac. Pod. Brit, (i May, 18 15) text to pi. xxviii, a. 



« Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. xi, 340. ' Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. ix, 89 (1808). 



' Ibid. 90. ° Malac. Pod. Brit, (i July, 1816) text to pi. xxxi, figs. i-io. 



'» Ann. Nat. Hist. (1891), Ser. 6, vii, 277 ; Ser. 7, iv, 289 (1899). 



261 



