1881.] Fiddler Crab, and of Alpheus. 785 
For want of time the crabs bearing the eggs were placed in 
alcohol and studied after my return to Salem. Hoping to get 
another opportunity to study the living embryos and larve, after 
waiting about ten years expecting that some of our carcinolo- 
gists might describe the transformations of this interesting crab, 
I have decided to offer the following slight contribution to the 
subject, with the hope that a complete history of the develop- 
ment of the fiddler crab may yet be worked out. 
Several eggs were observed in which one, two, or sometimes 
three large nucleated and nucleolated (blastodermic) cells (Fig. 1, 
A) were observed lying on the periphery of the egg; they were 
- more or less flattened, and the yolk on which they rested was 
hollowed out under them. When the chorion is ruptured they 
pass out whole as large round cells(d). Their large size seems unu- 
sual for polar blastodermic cells. They all appear to be, however, 
waste segmentation cells. In eggs farther advanced, and after 
the blastoderm has appeared, the yolk is seen to be surrounded 
by a distinct membrane. 
In the next stages observed (2), the zoéa, with its appendages 
and large, dark, sessile eyes was formed. (C, the same freed 
from the egg shell or chorion.) 
_ Upon rupturing the egg-membrane of the alcoholic specimens, 
I was enabled to work out the form of the larva just before 
hatching. The cephalothorax is large and spherical, not seg- 
mented, while the abdomen is long and slender, and composed of 
Six definite somites; the last one ending in a forked tail, the 
rounded lobes provided each with three long sete or bristles (D). 
I could detect no frontal or dorsal spine, though they were prob- 
ably present in a rudimentary form, The antenné are as repre- 
sented at Fig. 1, 1, 1; the upper antenna (1) is conical, short and — 
thick, without any terminal seta; while the second or lower an- 
tenna (11) is much slenderer, rather longer, and ends in four very 
unequal setz, the second seta from above being very much the 
larger. The mandibles are simple, and I could detect no palpus. 
The first maxilla (tv) is two lobed, the lobes representing two 
€ndopodites; the upper (palpus) is about half as thick as the 
lower, and the seta hair-like; those of the first (lower) endopo- 
dite are spine-like. Of the second maxilla (v) only the three 
ner lobes or endopodites were observed, the exopodites or what 
Corresponds to the gill and scraper of the adult crab, unfortu- 
