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BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
or Anonmran spider crabs, the fifth pair are very small and are folded under the 
carapace, so that this family presents to the eye but four pairs of legs, a character 
which easily distinguishes it from any other family of Decapods. 
The Anonmran col lection made by the Fish Commission expedition to Porto Rico 
in the winter of 1898-99, on the steamer Fish Ilawk, contains 9 species believed to- 
be new, a total of 53 species being described. The most interesting feature of the 
collection is the number of new species of hermit crabs of the genus Paguristes and 
that group of the genus to which Paguristes depresms belongs. Stimpson described 
this species in 1859, from specimens dredged by Dr. Gill at St. Thomas. A. Milne- 
Ed wards and Bouvier described 6 species from the Blake dredgings, and here 5 
additional species are now presented as new. Most of them live in shells with rather 
narrow openings and show the modifications described by Stimpson, which result 
from narrow quarters. It is true of these species, as well as of P. depresses, that they 
have “all of the generic peculiarities of Paguristes . ” 
In this report it was thought best not to confine the descriptions to the species 
actually taken by the expedition, but to add descriptions of the more common species 
which are not in this or other Porto Rican collections, vet arc likely to occur there. 
Figures of many species of Anomura of the West Indian region are inaccessible 
or altogether lacking. While this lack has not been supplied, a beginning has been 
made, 26 species being here figured. 
All of the figures were drawn by Miss Annie A. McKnew, except figs. 2 and 3, 
plate 5. 
Genus DROMIA. 
Dromia erythropus (G. Edwards). 
Cancer marinus chclis rubris Catesby, Nat. Hist. Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands, n, 87, pi. xxxvn, 1743. 
Cancer erythropus Edwards, Catalogue ol Animals in Catesby’s Natural Hist, of Carolina, with the Linnsean names, 
1771. ( Teste M. J. Rathbun.) 
Dromia lator H. M. Edwards, Hist. Nat. des Crust., II, 174, 1837. 
Dromia erythropus M. J. Rathbun, Annals of the Institute of Jamaica, vol. I, No. 1, p. 39, 1897. 
The front is tridentate, the inner angles of the orbits farming two and the rostral point the 
third, which is about as far below the line of the orbital angles as they are separated from each other. 
There are five teeth on the antero-lateral margin, including the one at the outer angle of the eye. 
The carapace is very convex in all directions, much broader than long; it is covered with a coat of 
short bristles, which altogether conceal the substance of the shell. The chelipeds are similarly 
covered, only the tips of the fingers being exposed. The chelipeds and the first and second pairs of 
ambulatory feet are stout and strong, folding in close to the body; the fourth pair are the shortest; 
the fifth pair rest on the posterior portion of the carapace. Both the fourth and fifth are much 
flattened and are subchelate. 
This crab is found in shallow water throughout the West Indian region. The carapace of one at 
hand measures 67 mm. in length and 84 in breadth. 
Genus DROMIDIA. 
Dromidia antillensis Stimpson. 
Dromidia antillensis Stimpson, Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y., vn, p. 71, March, 1859. 
The front of this species is very much as in Dromia erythropus. The carapace is longer than 
wide; teeth of the antero-lateral margin are little more than enlarged granules, with the exception of 
the one behind the cervical suture. The outer angle of the eye is produced, but is not tooth-like. The 
fourth and fifth pairs of feet are subchelate. Carapace and feet are covered with a dense coat of short 
bristles, only the tips of the fingers showing. This crab carries over its carapace a growing sponge, 
with a cavity beneath into which the carapace fits. Under these conditions sponges are sometimes 
seen to move about, to the astonishment of those unacquainted with this bit of natural history. 
Porto Rico. Collected by Mr. G. M. Gray. Mayaguez, station 6093. 
