THE LIVING WORLD. 
53 
of both animal and vegetable character. So clothed at times are they with 
foreign bodies that scarcely any portion of the real animal can be seen as it 
moves about like a conglomerate mass on the ocean floor. So cumbrous do 
these accumulations become that the animal occasionally seems much distressed, 
and but for the 
shedding of his 
shell, by which 
alone he may rid 
himself of the 
parasites, he 
would probably 
be rendered in¬ 
capable of move¬ 
ment. 
Another species 
of the spider crab 
is so unlike that 
j ust described that 
the classification 
appears arbitrary. 
It is peculiar in 
being a counter¬ 
part of the well- 
known insect 
commonly called 
“grand-daddy 
long legs,” and 
progresses very 
much after the 
same manner. 
Specimens of this latter have been captured with bodies scarcely equalling the 
diameter of a dinner plate, whose spread of legs was twenty feet. 
The Porcupine Crab is also a habitant of Japan waters, where it grows 
to a considerable size. It takes its common name from the sharp spines which 
cover its body, giving it a formidable appearance, but not 
sufficient to protect ;t from the voracity of many species 
of fishes. 
The Frog Crab, of which there are several species 
found in tropical waters, has a body very like that of the 
frog, from which fact the name has been given. The 
body is small, hardly exceeding the size of a man’s fist, 
and the legs are so short as to be barely observable from 
a top view. 
The Death’s-head Crab, known to science as Dromia 
vulgaris , is confined to a small territory of the ocean 
waters, being found, so far as I have been able to deter¬ 
mine, only about the shores of the Channel Islands. The carapax is smooth, 
with a knob rising from the centre having a fanciful resemblance to a 
skull and cross bones. The legs are hairy and generally bear about, 
JAPANESE SPIDER CRAB. 
PORCUPINE CRAB. 
