Contributions to the Fauna of the Bahamas 



23 



number of small pretty coloured forms. Stomatopods in all colours swim between 

 tlie rocks. \\'ith them vie in brilliancy of colours the snapping-prawns [Alphesles), 

 known to every collector in these regions by the one claw being much larger than 

 the other and through the sharp snap they make when closing the sharp-edged 

 blade on this claw. Sea-anemones are represented by several forms, attached to 

 the rocks or with the foot buried down in the hard sand. Falythoa a genus of colonial 

 Actinians, push up their expanded zooids through the sand. A great number of 

 small fishes dwells here, Blennies of the genera Labrisomiis, Malacoctenus and 

 Auchenopterus, (jobies [Gohins svporafor), small specimens of Eupomacenfrm, Gohiesox 

 and others. At low water small bluish collembolas [Anurida maritima Laboulb.) 

 are seen running about. Small pieces of living corals {Porites) are often found 

 here along the shore and they seem able to bear exposure to such a life at least 

 for some time, the zooids being found expanded. 



Outside this region the tide has no influence on the fauna. We come to a 

 region (f) that is always below water. Corals, as flat pieces of Meandra, Porites 

 and other, are found here, as well as several forms of gorgonians and sponges. 

 This region continues in a sea bottom consisting of coral sand, the fauna of which 

 will be described below. 



The regions of the rocky shore, described above, are not always to be 

 distinguished. At places where the beach slopes not gently, but more or less abruptly 

 one or several of these regions are eliminated. There are also many intermediate 

 states between the rocky shore and the sand beach, the fauna of which I shall now 

 briefly describe. 



The sandy beach fauna. The sand beach consists oft the same material as the 

 rocky shore, coral and shell sand, but owing to the very recent deposition of this, 

 it has not yet got cemented to rock. The fauna here is very poor. We meet the 

 same land area as in the preceding shore formation, with the same growth and sea- 

 weed thrown up. The fauna is also identical with that found in the corresponding 

 part of the rocky shore. Outside this area we have a smooth sand ground, with 

 hardly any other animals than the sand-crab iOcypoda arenaria). These sand-coloured 

 crabs which are rather common, burrow deep perpendicular holes in the vsand, to 

 which they retire if alarmed. They are seen running about on the sand catching- 

 sand fleas, on which they largely subsist. 



The fauna of Mangrove-oights. At many places in the Bahamas bights are 

 found, bordered by a rich mangrove vegetation. The beach is quite sandy or a 

 little rocky, with shallow holes, in which water may remain when the tide retires. This 

 physiographical formation has its own characteristic fauna too. Attached to the 

 mangroves so high that they are reached by the sea only at high water, small 

 barnacles are found. Common on the mangrove is also a shell, {Littorina angidifer 

 Lam.). Crabs may be seen crawling about. At about the high-water level the beach 

 is pierced with an immense number of small holes, the burrows of a Geiasimus, 

 this interesting httle crab, and shells of the genus Cerithium almost cover the 



