NOTES 
The Crab Parasite Sacculina in the Fiji Islands 
On March 18, 1949, through the kind help 
of Mr. Harold Catty at Suva, I obtained the 
opportunity to collect corals on the reefs near 
Tomberua Island on the east side of Viti 
Levu, the main island of the Fiji Group. In 
addition to other material I found two spec- 
imens of the crab Xantho exaratus ( H. Milne 
Edwards ) which were infested with the para- 
site Sacculina leptodiae Guerin-Ganivet. 
The parasites have the broadly oval shape 
which seems to be characteristic of the speci- 
mens living on Xantho exaratus (cf. Fig. la-d 
in Boschma, H., ZooL Meded. 30(3) : 49-71, 
21 figs., 1948); their greater diameter is ap- 
proximately 6 and 5 mm. They are attached 
to hosts which have a carapace breadth of 
13.5 and 11.5 mm. respectively. 
In shape and size the excrescences of the 
external cuticle of the mantle do not differ 
from those of specimens found on the same 
crab from other localities. In the larger speci- 
men these excrescences have a length of 35 
to 45 g (Fig. 1, upper row); in the smaller 
specimen they have a length of 30 to 40 g 
(Fig. 1, lower row). 
Sacculina leptodiae was described by 
Guerin-Ganivet ( T rav. Set. Lab. Zool. et 
Physiol. Marit. Concarneau 3(7): 1-97, 
1911). His material came from the Gulf of 
Aden and from the Comoro Islands in the 
Mozambique Channel. Other specimens on 
Xantho exaratus are known from Zanzibar, 
the Red Sea, and the Andaman Islands. In 
the East Indies the parasite is of common 
occurrence on the crabs T halamita stimpsoni 
A. Milne Edwards and Pseudozius caystrus 
Adams & White (Boschma, loc. cit.). The 
occurrence of the parasite in the Fiji Islands 
considerably extends its known range of 
distribution. 
Fig. 1. Sacculina leptodiae Guerin-Ganivet: 
specimens from Tomberua Island, Fiji. Excres- 
cences of the external cuticle of the larger speci- 
men (upper row) and of the smaller specimen 
(lower row). X 530. 
Until now there was only one record of a 
rhizocephalan parasite in the Fiji Islands, viz., 
that of specimens of the genus T hompsonia 
on the snapping shrimp Alpheus malleodigi- 
tus (Bate), obtained by the "Challenger” 
Expedition on the reef of Levuka, Ovalau 
Island, east of Viti Levu (Bate, C. S., Rept 
Sci. Results Voyage H. M. S. Challenger , 
Zool. 24. xc + 942 pp., xv + 7 6 figs., 157 
pis. ) . — H. Boschma, Rijksmuseum van Natu- 
urlijke Historic, Leiden. 
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