62 



A CORNISH FAUNA. 



purchasing them tliey are regarded as a great annoyance by the 

 fishermen ; for it is found that when they occupy a crab-pot 

 no lobster will enter it. I have been informed of nearly a cart 

 load having been taken at one haul of a ground seine, and sin- 

 gularly enough the whole were found to be females. It is indeed 

 a matter of general observation that the females exceed the males 

 in the proportion of perhaps 10 to 1 ; and during the summei 

 they are all well laden with spawn, which having been carried 

 beneath the flap as in other crabs, for several months, for the sake 

 of full exposure to the water and light, are dropped in some con- 

 cealed places, where they elude observation, for I have not 

 succeeded in finding one of a very small size." This may be 

 accounted for by the fact that when in the zcea form the young 

 animal swims on the surface of the sea in a form unlike the 

 parent. 



CANCJSBIDJE.—iC&NCjmiA-NS.) 

 Genus, Xantho. — Leach. 

 ,, Zantho. — Couch. 



Carapace large, horizontal, a narrow fissure dividing it into 

 two portions, the separating line furrowed ; cavities of the 

 antennae transverse, separated by a slender partition, antennae 

 short. 



Xantho floeidtjs — Furrowed Crab. — Leach, Malac.pl. 11; Milne 

 Edwards, LList. des Crust., fig. 1, p. 294: Bell, Brit. Stalk- 

 eyed Crust., p. 51. 

 Bell says that " it is found in considerable numbers on the 

 Coast of Cornwall and Devonshire, and also in Dorsetshire. It 

 has been observed on several parts of the Coast of Ireland. Of 

 its peculiar habits nothing is known." 



Xantho rivulosa — Leach, Trans. Sin. Soe. xi, p. 320 ; Bell, Brit. 

 Stallc-eyed Crust., p. 54 ; Milne Edwards, Hist, des Crust., t. 

 1, p 394. 



" Equally common with the last and in similar situations, 

 under stones about low water mark." 



This species is known in the Mediterranean sea, and it has 

 been taken at Antrim, in Ireland. Mr. Couch informed Mr. 

 Bell that it is rather more common than X florida, in Cornwall. 



