Brachyura and Anomura of Puget Sound — KNUDSEN 
27 
Oregonia gracilis 
HABITAT: The decorator crab, Oregonia gra- 
cilis , ranges from Bristol Bay, Alaska, to Mon- 
terey Bay, California, and from the intertidal 
zone down to depths of 212 fathoms (collected 
by the Albatross, recorded by Rathbun, 1894: 
59). Way (1917:369) records that this animal 
is quite abundant at all depths down to 55 
fathoms, or possibly greater, at Friday Harbor. 
She cites such areas as the pilings at the Friday 
Harbor dock, eel grass off Browns Island, and 
along various beaches in the San Juan Island 
chain. While the general nature of the habitat 
in southern Puget Sound seems to be similar to 
that recorded by Way, the crabs can not be con- 
sidered as abundant. Adult forms were scarce 
indeed, and considerable effort was required to 
find even one or two individuals during the 
winter season on the pilings. The fact that these 
crabs are so highly decorated and that they 
choose to live amongst algae and invertebrate- 
encrusted pilings may mean that their presence 
was simply less noticeable. Adults were found 
chiefly on pilings or on sea walls, while juveniles 
were more frequently found on Zoster a. Due 
to the lack of individuals our records are ex- 
tremely weak for this species and we have made 
no all-out attempt to study its reproductive cycle. 
We will present those data that are available to 
make the record as complete as possible. 
REPRODUCTIVE ACTIVITY: Data concerning 
reproductive activity for 0 . gracilis seem to be 
scarce and incomplete. Rathbun (1925:73-78) 
records ovigerous females from St. George Is- 
land, Pribilof Islands, in May and September; 
from Attu Island and Petral Bank, Aleutian Is- 
lands, in June; for Cordova and Yes Bay, south- 
eastern Alaska, in June and August, respectively; 
and from Comox, Vancouver Island, British 
Columbia, in July. Garth (1958:139) records 
as gravid 25 of 40 females taken in late July, 
and 20 of 40 females taken in early August in 
the San Juan Strait-Puget Sound region. One 
specimen collected at Point Defiance in October, 
three collected there in December, and one col- 
lected in February were ovigerous. The eggs for 
these months were of a new, bright red nature. 
The summertime records of both Rathbun and 
Garth should not be interpreted as meaning that 
females are most frequently ovigerous during 
that season for, by consulting Rathbun’s many 
station records, one may see that all occurred 
during the late spring and summer months and 
none were made between October and April. 
Those few specimens of O. gracilis maintained 
at the Point Defiance aquarium behaved like the 
other species of spider crabs cited above: that 
is, eggs were carried over the major part of the 
year and development was quite slow, with 
hatching occurring after irregular intervals. 
PRODUCTIVITY: Three specimens, sacrificed 
for ova counts, ranged in carapace width from 
17 mm up to 25 mm. The number of eggs 
ranged from 2,800 up to 17,400, with an average 
of 9,200 eggs per brood. Data are too few to 
suggest that only one brood is produced per 
year, although this, is probably the case. Ob- 
servations of other reproductive activity such 
as courtship, copulation, and egg deposition are 
wanting. 
Scyra acutifrons 
HABITAT: The sharp-nosed crab, Scyra acuti- 
frons, is recorded from Kodiak Island, Alaska, 
to San Diego, California, and from the inter- 
tidal zone down to 40 fathoms (Rathbun, 1910: 
175; 1925:196), and down to 55 fathoms by 
Way (1917:371). The writer recalls having 
taken this species north of the published range 
in the Cook Inlet area in Katchemac Bay, while 
doing king crab research in the summers of 
1957 and 1958. 
This species was taken only in two situations 
in southern Puget Sound: first, on pilings where 
barnacles were extremely numerous, and, sec- 
ond, on rocks in areas where strong currents 
prevailed during changing of the tide. Way 
suggests that this species is not abundant, and 
this was surely our own experience. We did not 
find it within Zoster a beds, and only on one 
occasion was it found moving across an open 
sandy substrate. The crabs are often decorated 
with bits of sponge, hydroids or other inverte- 
brates, or bits of algae, and generally match the 
surroundings of pilings or rocks very closely. 
Like the other species of spider crabs, Scyra 
attains a position with the anterior end pointing 
downward and thus is very inconspicuous when 
hiding amongst barnacles on a piling. Frequently 
the only sign that would allow one to detect 
