HIGHER CRUSTACEA OF XKW YORK CITY 



133 



acute. Males, smaller, more slender and with rostrum narrower 

 vertically. 



Length: female 20-26 mm, male 15-20 mm. Color translucent, 

 usually bright green or pale with specks of brown or red and a broad 

 median band of dark brown. Found among the eelgrass and taken 

 in Jamaica bay. 



Y i r b i u s p 1 e u r a cant h u s Stimp. may also be taken. It 

 may be distinguished from the above by the shorter rostrum. 



Fig. 5 Virbius zostericola (After Verrill i 



Another much larger shrimp, measuring six inches in length, is 

 occasionally taken in Great South bay and in the Hudson. This is 

 the edible shrimp of the southern states, P e n a e u s b r a s i 1 i e n - 

 s i s Lat. and it belongs to the family Penaeidae. 



2 ASTACIDEA 



Moderate or large sized forms with a rather stout body. Antennal 

 scale small or wanting. Xo longitudinal sutures, but a transverse 

 suture separating the cephalic from the thoracic region, may be 

 present. Carapace united in front with the epistome. First pair 

 of thoracic legs in our forms are large and chelate and the two 

 following pairs may also bear small chelae. 



Our representatives of this tribe are the lobster and the crayfish, 

 both of which belong to the family Astacidae. 



Homarus americanus Mil.-Edw. 



Homarus americanus Milne-Edwards. Hist. Nat. des Cms. 1837. 

 2:334. Herrick, F. H. U. S. Fish Com. Bui. for 1895. p.i, pl.A-J and 1-54. 



This, the well known edible form, is no longer to be taken within 

 the limits of Xew York city, the constant fishing to which it was 

 subject, as well as the pollution of the water, having completely 

 exterminated it. 



