272 THE DEEP-SEA CRUSTACEA 



nearly double this size have been obtained in other 

 parts of the world. 



Among curiosities made use of as tenements by 

 certain deep-sea Crustacea whose choice is, perhaps, 

 rather more limited than that of their relatives near 

 shore, one of the most remarkable is the habitation of 

 Pylocheles miersii (Fig. 65), a hermit-crab found by 

 Dr A. R. S. Anderson in 185 fathoms. This singular 

 hermit-crab, whose body is as faultlessly symmetrical 

 as that of any lobster, lives in hollow twigs of bamboo 

 and mangrove which have drifted out to sea and have 

 sunk to the bottom when waterlogged. Its body fits 

 the tube of the chosen twig as a glove fits a finger, and 

 its great chelae are modified so as to form, when pressed 

 together, a tight-fitting stopper to the mouth of the 

 tube. There is just one chink left as a peep-hole 

 between the cork and the tube-wall. Pylocheles has a 

 very strange distribution, being only found in the 

 Caribbean Sea and in East Indian waters. 



Another crustacean that has its burrow in sunken 

 driftwood is the little scorpion - lobster {Callianassa 

 lignicola), found in the Andaman Sea, in 185-250 

 fathoms, by my successor Dr Anderson. 



The Ste7iopidea and scorpion-lobsters ( Thalassinidea) 

 are a feeble folk, and several of them are known to 

 habitually seek shelter in sponges and zoophytes. 

 Such are Spongicola, one species of which has been 

 discovered in the Andaman Sea in 170-300 fathoms; 



