Page:VCH Sussex 1.djvu/299

 CRUSTACEANS species is rare on the coasts of England and France, it is abundant more to the south as far as the coasts of the Sahara, and refer to its having been taken on various occasions at the Azores.* In the family Maiids the county is credited with five species. Maia squinado (Herbst) is mentioned in the Natural History of Hastings as not uncommon.^ Mr. Guermonprez incorporates it in his list as common at Bognor. It is a large species with the outside prickly, the inside good for food. Among its hairs and thorns other crustaceans often find lodgment for their small bodies, making the Maia a sort of curiosity shop for the microscopist. Hyas araneus (Linn.) was received from Worthing by Bell, who states that it occurs in considerable abundance at Hastings and that he had himself obtained it there.^ It grows to a large size, though its body is never comparable in bulk with that of Maia squinado. Hyas coarctatus. Leach, was also procured by Bell at Hastings and received by him from Worthing.* The lateral constriction of the carapace, which has suggested the name coarctatus, is almost the only character for distinguishing this species from the larger H. araneus. The smaller form is said to frequent the greater depths, but they occur so frequently in the same localities that some suspicion of their specific distinctness may be permitted. Fine specimens are found in arctic waters as well as in our own. Mr. Hailstone allowed himself to suggest a third species, under the name H. serratus, for specimens a quarter of an inch long,^ which are almost undoubtedly only the fry of the earlier named species, whether the word ' species ' be applied in the singular or the plural. Blastus tetraodon (Pennant), better known as Pisa tetraodon, the four-horned spider-crab, is recorded by Leach from Brighton, and Bell says : ' The habits of this species, so far as I have had an oppor- tunity of observing them, are curious. They are found concealed under the long hanging fuci which clothe the rocks at some distance from the shore, in which situation I have taken them among the Bognor rocks. They congregate in vast numbers at the place I have just mentioned in the prawn and lobster pots. I have seen probably thirty among the refuse of one of these, attracted no doubt by the garbage which is placed in them as bait. These were much larger and finer than any I have seen elsewhere.'" Blastus tribulus (Linn.), under the name of Pisa gibbsii. Leach, is recorded by Bell from Hastings.' In it the rostrum is longer, with the component horns of it much less divergent, than in the preceding species. This genus is distinguished from Hyas by having the last joint in the walking legs fringed with a comb of denticles, of which Hyas is devoid. Eurynome aspera (Pennant) represents the long-armed and often rugged family of the Parthenopidas, wherein the walking legs are notably shorter than the chelipeds. Hailstone describes from the Sussex coast ' Risultats des Campagnes Scientlfiques, fasc. 7 ; Crustacis Dicapodes (1894), p. 7. '^ p. 41. ' Brit'uh Stalk-eyed Crustacea, p. 33. * p. 36. 6 Loudon's Magazine o/Nalurat History, viii. 549. 253
 * British Stalk-eyed Crustacea, p. 24. '' Loc. cit. p. 29.