278 
SUPPLEMENT 
close in more or less time, according to the state of the tem- 
perature.” 
On this last observation of M. Risso, M. Latreille remarks, 
“ M. Risso has had better opportunities than myself of study- 
ing the manners of these animals. I confess, however, that I 
have some difficulty in believing that the females of the same 
species have many births in the course of one year, from the 
spring to the end of the autumn. Analogy, and the observa- 
tions of other naturalists, seem to contradict this assertion.” 
Pison has represented, in his Natural History of Brazil, a 
portunus bordering on the has tutus of Fabrieius, and which, 
in the language of the country, he names Cire apoa. The 
word cire seems to be a common denomination for Crustacea 
similar to the preceding, which live habitually at the bottom 
of the sea, and which proceed to the shore only for the pur- 
pose of seeking the ambergris which has been cast there by 
the waves. They are only to be caught at the period of the 
strong tides. It appears that they are put into vinegar, and 
though many of them may be eaten, they are rarely found in- 
digestible. Some other species again form an aliment for the 
inhabitants of the maritime coasts of China, of the East Indies, 
&c. These Crustacea abound in the seas which border on the 
tropics; but tlie Northern Ocean furnishes but few species, 
and those small, or but of middle size. 
The known species of the genus Tiielphusa live in the 
fresh waters. The one which is proper to the south of 
Europe, and the Levant, has been for a long time known. It 
enjoyed a great celebrity among the Greeks, a proof of which 
is to be found in the antique medals of Agrigentum in Sicily, 
on one side of which it is usually represented, and often with 
so much truth, that it is impossible to mistake it. Particular 
mention is made of this crustaceum in the writings of Pliny, 
Dioscorides, Nicander, &c. 
It is the carcinos potamios of the Greeks, and the grancio 
