152 



Crustacea. 



the ever-changing course of conditions which marks all nature, 

 some sections of these Hermits become bereft of this last 

 refuge. And the only alternatives offered by stern mother 

 nature are : Modify or Perish. 



Taking up this tail of the great Stone Crab (specimen 

 shown), and observing here that the somites or joints of it 

 are all whorled to one side, and that the swimming feet on its 

 underside are in the direction of a thing that has been used to a 

 twist, we see plainly that some of those ancient Hermits chose 

 the first of these alternatives. Self-dependence and facility for 

 motion unencumbered with a " Charity house " now bring an 

 upward line in the scale of evolution. This upward line is re- 

 peated at more or less of an angle in the case of these two other 

 genera before us, viz., the Oalatheas and the Porcelain Crabs. 



I may here say that in the subject of the evolution of this 

 group I am in the very unpleasant position of variance with 

 our Scientists who regard this group as the connecting link 

 between the long-tailed and short-tailed Crustaceans (Macrura 

 and Brachyura) a position which I formerly held upon the 

 tenure of " Authority " but which investigation has forced me 

 to abandon. 



So far from regarding the Anomoura as transitional 

 between the two great groups of stalked-eyed Crustaceans, I 

 can only see in it an off -shoot of the Macrura, in a quite differ- 

 ent direction, viz., a chaDge through degradation, still so per- 

 sistent in the Hermit crab, then again through the relinquish- 

 ing of the habit of quasi-parasiticism in some of these, an 

 assumption of forms bearing some resemblance to the members 

 of the two great groups, but by no means granting them a 

 transitional position. 



I have explained my position upon this matter at greater 

 length in an illustrated paper which is published in Life Lore 

 for August, and to which I will refer those members who may 

 take sufficient interest in the subject. 

 In opening, I alluded to the Economic interest attached to the 



