The prehensile claw of this crustacean is very curious. It is capable of being bent back, with 
its elegantly curved teeth into a groove in the long flattened hand. The groove has a little notch 
to receive the point of each tooth. There are also three moveable teeth at the extremity of the 
hand. The seizing and retaining power of this apparatus must be very considerable. The 
Squilla mantis, tolerably common in the Mediterranean, occurs but rarely on the south-western 
coasts of Great Britain. 
SQUILLA DESMARESTII. 
Fig. 4. 
S. abdomine ad latera longitudinaliter cristatum medio lsevigato, segmenti penultimo octocristato ; 
digito prehensili quinque-dentato. 
Squilla Desmarestii, Bisso, Crust. Nice, t. II, f. 8, p. 114, Couch, Corn. Faun. p. 81. 
Fig. 4, Squilla Desmarestii. 
Like the preceding, this species is common in its Mediterranean home, while it occurs but 
rarely on the British coast. It differs from S. mantis in the central arch of the abdominal 
segments being uncrested, and in having five instead of six long teeth on the prehensile fino-er. 
