A HISTORY OF SUSSEX the House of Commons that only one species of lobster is found off the coasts of Great Britain, as though they had never heard of the rock lobster, Paliimrus vulgaris, or of Nephrops norivegicus, the Norway lobster. But the consideration of lobsters, with their kith and kin, must be deferred till the numerous crabs of Sussex have been discussed. Though crabs and lobsters are alike Decapods, or ten-footed stalk-eyed Malaco- straca, the crabs form a great division apart known as Brachyura or short-tails. In these the insignificant abdomen, tail, or pleon, is so folded against the breast as often to escape altogether the notice of the unobservant. This is especially the case with the male. In the female the tail, though not thick, is usually broad, the more effectually to take its part in holding together the eggs. These are often so multitudinous that they force the tail far out from the breast or sternal plastron by their swollen mass and make it conspicuous. The Brachyura are divided into five great sections. The one that includes the eatable crab bears the title Cyclometopa, not because the front is like a wheel or cycle, but only because it is more or less arcuate. Twelve Sussex species belong to various families of this section. The family Cancrids is represented by Cancer pagurus, the family Xanthidas by Pirimela denticulata (Montagu) and Pilumnus hirtellus (Linn.). This latter is not uncommon. Adam White records a specimen of it from Sussex, presented to the British Museum by J. E. Gray, Esq.,' and Bell says, ' the finest specimens I ever saw I procured from prawn and lobster pots at Bognor in September, 1842. It is worthy of remark that amongst twenty or thirty specimens I found only one female, a dried and mutilated one.' ^ This shaggy little species is the only one that our waters produce out of an extensive genus, and according to Bell it can be readily distinguished from all its foreign brethren by the absence of spines from the upper margin of the orbit. On the other hand it will be found to have a rather pretty feature in the orbit's denticulate lower margin. There is a marked inequality in the size of the two chelipeds, the larger being developed impartially on the right side or the left. Pirimela denticulata is a small species, but attracting attention by the dentation and prominence of its front, the ridges on the back of its carapace, and the characters of its outer maxillipeds. It is perhaps nowhere very common. Mr. Guermonprez informs me that he has taken a single specimen at Bognor. To the family Portunid^ belongs Carcinus manas (Pennant), the shore crab. This, like Cancer pagurus, is eatable and is eaten, but though thousands and myriads have fallen victims to man's appetite their martyrdom has never won them much respect. Bell speaks of the flavour being very delicate and sweet,' without apparently influencing gastron- omers, who perhaps seldom study his book. Apart however from any value it may have for the epicure, this bold and defiant tenant of the shore has had its day of popularity. At one time a controversy was rife between naturalists who affirmed and others who denied that metamor- ^ List of the specimens of British Animals in the British Museum (1850), pt. iv. p. 1 1.
- British Stalk-eyed Crustacea, p. 70. * Loc. cit. p. 78.
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