NationalLibraryOfScotland/medical-history-of-british-india huggingface dataset:
60
Scientific Memoirs by
Alcock, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (6) IX, 1892, p, 417, and X, 1892, p. 1 (Trygon,
Pteroplatæa) .
H. C. Redeke, Onderzoekingen betreffende het urogenital system der Selachiers
en Holocephalen, Amsterdam, 1898 (with an exhaustive bibliography).
I I I . — O n t h e S o u n d s m a d e b y c e r t a i nM
a r i n e A n i m a l s .
Many species of fishes and several species of Crustacea have long been
known to possess the power of emitting purposive sounds of a more or less
musical character ; and when serving on the " Investigator " I had several oppor-
tunities of hearing these sounds and, in some cases, of noting the conditions
under which they were elicited.
1. Sounds made by Crustacea.
Although organs which are inferred to be used for strepitation have been
noticed in many of the higher Crustacea, the literature dealing with their ascer-
tained function seems to be very scanty.
Ortmann, in Bronn's Klassen und Ordnungen des Thierreichs, Vol. V. pt.
ii (Arthropoda ) , pp. 1245-9, gives a not quite complete summary of the subject,
and mentions among Crustacea known to emit intentional sounds, several species
of Alpheus, Pontonia pinnœ, the Palinuridœ, Matuta victor, Ozius edwardsi,
and most species of Ocypoda.
Dana ( United States Exploring Expedition, Crustacea, pt. I, p. 322) briefly
describes the stridulating apparatus of the Ocypode crabs and merely mentions
that these crabs are able to make sounds.
Möbius (Wiegmann's Archiv für Naturgeschichte, XXXIII, 1867, i, p. 73)
describes the sound made by an European species . of Palinurus and the mechan-
ism by which the sound is produced.
Kingsley ( American Naturalist, XXII, 1888, p. 893) states that the Ocypod-
oid crab Gelasimus can make a musical noise.
Hilgendorf ( Sitzungsberichte der Ges. Naturforsch Freunde, Berlin, XXI,
1868, p. 2) mentions the fact that the swimming-crab Matula can crepitate.
I have myself ( Admin. Rep. Marine Survey India, 1892, p. 16) discussed
the sounds made by one of the Ocypode crabs, and the circumstances under
which it was heard.
Captain A. R. S. Anderson (Journ. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, 1894, pt. 2, p. 138)
has published a short note on the stridulation of another species of Ocypode
crabs.
Coutière ( Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Zool., ser. 8, Vol. IX, 1899)
discusses at some length the sounds made by Alpheus. Herrick also ( John
Medical Officers of the Army of India.
61
Hopkins University Circulars, VII, No. 63, p. 35) has published some observa-
tions on the sounds of Alpheus.
I myself have heard, and have repeatedly elicited, sounds from the follow
-ing species of Crustacea: Gonodactylus chiragra, Peneus sp. prox. semisulcatus,.
Alpheus several sp., Palinurus striatus, Matuta miersii and lunaris, Ocypoda
macrocera.
Gonodactylus chiragra.— In this Locust-shrimp a loud click or snap can be
made by the sudden extension of the finger of the large raptorial claws : it seems
to be caused in the following manner : the distal two-thirds of the finger is slender
and when in repose is folded back, like the blade of a pocket-knife, in
a groove in the upper border of the preceding joint. At the near end of this groove,
slightly to the inner side, is an erectile spine ; and the sound seems to be caused
by the tip of the forcibly extended finger striking the erected spine. The animal
certainly makes this noise when irritated and it is a sound that one often
hears on coral reefs.
Peneus.— In a species of Peneus dredged in 33 fathoms off the Ganjam
coast, a very efficient stridulating organ is formed by the telson and swimmeret.
The inner edge of the inner lobe of the swimmeret is finely and evenly serrated,
while on the under surface of the outer edge of the telson there is a long file-like
patch of villiform teeth. By the scraping of the former upon the latter a soft
thrilling sound, like the subdued note of a grasshopper, results. The animal
repeatedly made this noise when seized.
Alpheus.—The sharp snap or crack emitted by many species of A l p h e u s
has been the subject of much discussion. There is no doubt that it is made
with the movable " finger " of the gigantic cheliped. On this finger there
is a very prominent tubercle, which, when the fingers are closed, fits tightly
into a deep hole in the opposed finger, both fingers being fringed with long
hairs. Some think that the sound is made by the sudden withdrawal of the
tubercle, like a cork from a pop-gun ; others think that it is caused by the
sudden forcing of the tubercle into the socket, like a wad into a gun-barrel. In
any case the sharpness of the sound seems to be accented by the " cracking "
of the long hairs with which the finger is fringed. The sound is frequently
heard on coral reefs.
Palinurus.—The mechanism of the weird creaking sound made by the
European Rock-lobster has been explained by Möbius : in the Indian species,
Palinurus striatus, it is almost identical. A lobe at the inner angle of the
basal joint of the antenna plays over a broad highly-convex ridge at the edge of
the dorsal surface of the antennular ring. The lobe is concave, so as to tightly
62
Scientific Memoirs by
embrace the ridge, and while the convexity of the ridge has a dead-polished
surface the concavity of the lobe is finely striated ; and the sound is made by the
friction of the two opposed surfaces.
It is interesting to observe that this organ of defence—for both sexes have
the apparatus and use it freely when captured—is in part formed by the
a n t e n n æ , w h i c h a r e t h e a p p e n d a g e s u s e d i n o f f e n c e b yP
a l i n u r u s
w h o h a s n o n i p p e r s .
The same connexion of functions is illustrated by the Peneus above referred
to, in whom the stridulating telson is also a powerful weapon of offence ; and by
Gonodactylus, Alpheus, Matuta, and Ocypoda, in all of which both sexes are alike.
Matuta.—The Indian species of this genus are four in number, and in all of
them, as is well known, a strepitating mechanism is found in both sexes. The
most important part of the apparatus is situated at the upper part of the inner
surface of the " palm " of the nippers, and consists of two patches—one oval, the
other long and narrow—of fine parallel ridges, forming a file-like surface.
These files can be rubbed either against the rough lower edge of the orbit or
against a ridge, on the pterygostomian region, to the causation of sound. A
little reticulated facet, which is present in all the species, except M. lunaris, on
the outer surface of the orbital angle, may perhaps participate.
I have heard Matuta lunaris and Matuta miersii stridulate angrily when
touched.
Ocypoda.— The crepitating apparatus of the Ocypode crabs has been fre-
quently described. It is found in every species but one, although its details of
structure have specific differences. It consists of a broad file-like band of
teeth and fine ridges, placed across the far end of the inner surface of the " palm "
of the enlarged cheliped, the whole being more or less fringed with, or embedded
in, short hair. This can be scraped across a series of tubercles, or a definite
ridge, running along the inner surface of the ischiopodite of the same cheliped,
much as a man might rub his breast with the palm of his hand.
Probably all the Ocypodes that possess it make use of this fiddle and bow,
but I myself have only heard it at work in Ocypoda macrocera, and then only
after prolonged attention to the species to this end.
As mentioned in another section, the Ocypodes live in large warrens near
high-water mark, each individual having its own particular burrow, into which it
retreats at the slightest alarm.
I carefully observed Ocypoda ceratophthalma for three surveying seasons
before I heard it stridulate, the noise being then the outcome of my having cut
off a crab from its own burrow and compelled it to intrude into the burrow of
one of its fellows. The intruder crouched down at the entrance of the burrow,
Medical Officers of the Army of India.
63
and when, on my closer approach, it endeavoured to go further in, there was
evoked from the rightful tenant in the depths an angry whirr of remonstrance.
Thereafter I was often able to elicit the sound by catching an individual and forc-
ing it into a strange burrow : the captive was always most unwilling to enter,
but if he were forced in, the rightful owner would very soon let him know, by a
vigorous chiding from the stridulating organ, that he was not wanted.
In this deeply burrowing species one use of the stridulating apparatus thus
appears to be to warn away trespassers and obviate the risk of suffocation ; for
if a lot of crabs were to crowd into one burrow they would all, probably, be
stifled.
In Ocypoaa ceratophthalma, which does not burrow deeply, this cannot be
the use of the organ. Captain A. R. S. Anderson, who heard this species
croaking like frogs, on one of the Laccadive Islands, says that the noise was
being made without any apparent cause.
I may mention that my predecessor here, the late Prof. J. Wood-Mason, who
first called my attention to the musical powers of the Crustacea, discovered
what, though their function has not been verified, are probably strepitant organs,
in a small species of Peneus closely related to Peneus velutinus, in a species
of Squilla which he named S. stridulans, and in a species of Carcinoplacoid
crab to which he gave the significant name Psopheticus stridulans.
Moreover there are several species of Hermit-crabs, some of which are re-
ferred to in the literature, while others are not, in which organs that can only be
useful for crepitation exist.
Finally I may refer to the Catometope crabs of the genera Macrophthalmus
and Metaplax, the " musical organs " of which have been described by de Man.
Here the sound, as in the majority of stridulating insects, seems to have a sexual
meaning, since the organ that makes it is found only in the male. Perhaps some
" Investigator " Naturalist may have an opportunity of noting what the sound is
like, and in what circumstances it is heard, for these crabs are common enough in
the creeks of Indian deltas.
2.—Sounds made by Fishes.
The literature on this subject is very considerable and dates from the time of
Aristotle, and a large number of fishes are now known to be able to utter sounds
that are more or less musical, quite distinct from the meaningless gaspings of a
fish when taken out of water.
Apart from the irregular sounds caused by spasmodic movements of the lips,
jaws, gill-covers, fin-rays, etc., sounds expressive of emotion of some sort are
caused, or are supposed to be caused, (I) by grinding together of the pharyngeal
R
64
Scientific Memoirs by
bones, (2) by vibrations of the air-bladder and its gaseous contents, (3) by the
contraction of intrinsic muscles upon the distended air-bladder acting as a
r e s o n a t o r , ( 4 ) b y t h e f r i c t i o n o f s p e c i a l s u r f a c e s o f t h e v e r t e b r a l a n d i n t e r s p i n o u s
bones, or of enlarged fin-rays in their sockets, (5) by the forcible expulsion of the
-gaseous contents of the air-bladder, where a duct exists.
My own experience is limited to Therapon theraps, Pristipoma gouraka, and
several species of Sciaena (aneus, carutta, glaucus, similuctuosa), all of which
are gregarious—the Sciaenas especially—and can croak as loudly as any frog. In
all these species the sound seems to be caused by the grinding together of the
pharyngeal bones, while the air-bladder is distended.
The subject is well worth further consideration, and to this end I may refer
local naturalists to the following papers, in which will be found not only lists of
species known to emit sounds, but also valuable anatomical and physiological,
facts and criticisms : —
Johannes Müller, in hisA r c h i v f ü r A n a t . u . P h y s i o l .1857, p. 249 : Mettenheimer, in,
Muller's Archiv f. Anat. u. Physiol. 1858, p. 302 : Dufossé, in Revue et Magasin de
Zool, 1858, p. 84; and in Comptes Rendus, LXXV, 1872, p. 1074 [abstract in Ann. Mag.
Nat. Hist. (4) X, 1872, p. 470] ; and in Ann. Sci. Nat. Zool. (5) XIX, 1874,
Art. 5, and XX, 1874. Art, 3: de Thoron, in Comptes Rendus, LIII, 1861,p.1073,
and in Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1861, p. 548 : Moreau, in Ann. Sci. Nat. Zool.
( 6) I V 1876, Ar t . 8, p. 65 : Haddon, i nJ o u r n a l
o f A n a t . a n d P h y s i o l .
X V , 1 8 8 1 , p . 3 2 2 :
Day, Journ. Linn. Soc. Zool. XV, 1881, p. 49. Bridge and Haddon in Phil. Trans
Roy. Soc., Vol. 184, 1894, p. 269-270, 291, 298 (and Bibliography) :Sorensen in
Journal o f Anat. and Physiol., XXIX, 1895, p. 109-139, 205-229, 399-423, 518-552.
Sorensen ' s papers are particularly interesting reading. Numerous other references will be
found in the foot-notes to the above-mentioned papers.
See also Darwin, Naturalist's Journal, and the section in the Descent of Man on
secondary sexual characters in Fishes; Adams, Journal of the " Samarang ;" Moseley,
Naturalist on the Challenger.
IV,—Miscellaneous Notes on Stalk-eyed Crustacea.
1. On the Early Larval Stages of Hippa asiatica, Thenus orientalis, and
Nephrops andamanica.
(a) The anomurous genus Hippa consists, according to Ortmann (Zoolo-
gische Jahrbücher, Systenzatik Abth., IX, 1895-97, pages 231-233), of two spe-
cies, and according to Miers (Journal, Linnaean Soc., Zeal., XIV, 1879, pages
323.326), of three.
The three species recognized by Miers are : H. emerita, which is found
on the Atlantic coast of America, from about lat. 42° North to about lat. 35°S
outh ; H. analcga, which inhabits the Pacific coast of America, from about.
Medical Officers of the Army of India.
65
37º north to about 42º south ; and H. asiatica, which occurs in various places
on the shores of the Indian Ocean, from Zanzibar to Java.
The geographical distribution of such a strictly littoral genus is interesting
and suggestive, but for the moment our concern is with the habits and larval
forms of its species.
The habits and larval stages of H. emerita have been fully described by
S. I. Smith in the Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Sciences, Volume
III, 1874-78, page 311, and the first larval stage by Walter Faxon in the Bulle-
tin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard, Volume V, 1878-79, page
253.
According to Prof. Smith, Hippa emerita is gregarious, burrowing in the
loose sand near low-water-mark and using the hinder end of its body for this pur-
pose. Individuals placed in a suitable aquarium at once plunged beneath the
sand, but soon worked back towards the surface, and at length came to rest in
a perpendicular position, with the tips of the antennules and eyes just showing
above the surface. While in this position the currents of water from the gill-cham-
bers kept the overlying sand in constant motion. The peculiarly long antennæ
were never seen extended, but were always kept tucked in between the maxil-
lipeds.
These remarks apply without modification to Hippa asiatica, which species
I had frequent opportunities of observing when the " Investigator" was survey-
ing the Orissa coast in 1889.
According to Mr. Faxon, the larva of Hippa emerita leaves the egg as a
Zoaea with a smooth oval carapace which is produced anteriorly to form a broad
rather blunt rostrum but which has no dorsal or lateral spines. The abdomen
(judging from the figure) is bent beneath the carapace, and is described as ending
in a large broad plate-like telson, the convex posterior edge of which is fringed
with minute teeth. Two pairs of small antennæ are present, as well as mandibles
and two pairs of small and the only other appendages present, besides
the enormous eyes, are the two pairs of large biramous maxillipeds used in loco-
motion.
The newly-hatched larva of Hippa asiatica, which I had opportunities of
examining-in January 1889, corresponds almost exactly with that of H. emerita
as described and figured by Faxon : the chief difference being in the rostral spine
which is longer in Hippa asiatica.
(b) As far as I can ascertain, the larva of Thenus orientalis though it is
known to be a Phyllosoma (see Richters in Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche
Zoologie, XXIII, 1873, page 623) has not been described.
66
Scientific Memoirs by
The newly-hatched larva of this Loricate, as I observed it in the month of
January, is a Phyllosoma 1/12th of an inch long. Its body is divided into three
regions, namely (1) a broad crescentic cephalo-thoracic portion, (2) a
postero-horacic portion, with posteriorly convergent sides, consisting of five distinct seg-
ments, and (3) a very short stump-like abdomen bearing a pair of foliaceous,
lobes at its abruptly-truncated end.
The appendages (including buds) of the anterior region are a pair of huge
long-stalked pyriform eyes, two pairs of antennæ, a pair of toothed mandibles,
three pairs of small papillæ—the buds, respectively, of the two pairs of maxillæ
and first maxillipeds—and lastly two well-formed pairs of apparently five-jointed
maxillipeds.
The middle region carries five pairs of very elongate legs, the first of which
seems to be five-jointed and uniramous, while the other four are six-jointed and
biramous.
The abdomen has no appendages, unless the terminal lobes are such.
(c) The larva of the deep-sea lobster Nephrops andamanica, when removed
from the egg still containing food-yolk, has a globular cephalothorax, and a long
segmented abdomen ending in a large fan-shaped tail. All the appendages are
represented, including those of the abdomen : these latter are similar in form to
those of the adult, the last pair (swimmerets) being concealed beneath the termi-
nal fan.
2. On Some Curious Habits of Land Hermit-crabs.
(a) Birgus latro.—The uninhabited island of S. Sentinel, which lies about 15
miles to the north-west of Little Andaman I., is the only place known to me, in the
seas of India, where the Robber-crab (Birgus latro) is found. It may possibly
have once had a wider range in these islands and may have been exterminated
elsewhere; either by man or by the Andaman pig ; and its survival on South Senti
el may, possibly, be due to the fact that the island stands wellout in unsheltered
water, beyond the influence of the Andamanese and of Sus andamanicus.
In April, 1899, these great crabs were numerous in the jungle, which on South.
Sentinel is remarkably open and accessible : they were found among the spread-
ing roots of the large trees and under fallen trunks, " by companies," the males
being much more numerous than the females. During the heat of the day they
were lethargic and kept cover, but when late in the afternoon a shower of rain fell;
they became active. Individuals kept alive on board the " Investigator"
remained hidden during the day, but were very active at night, when also any that
died were eaten by their fellows. I observed one of these crabs drinking from a
runnel of rain-water, by clipping the fingers of one of its chelipeds into the water
and then carrying the wet. fingers to its mouth.
Medical Officers of the Army of India.67
(b) Coenobita.—More than one species of this genus of Hermit-crabs range,
in great profusion, the jungles of the Andaman Islands,and on some of the smaller
islets they seem to take a large share in discharging those scavenging functions
that elsewhere are performed by higher animals. When camped on the Coco
Islands we noticed them to be particularly active at night.
On one occasion, on Great Coco Island, I observed a small Coenobite. busy
among the florets of a cocoanut palm, a fact that appears to be worth recording,
inasmuch as it suggests that these crustaceans may possibly be useful in fertil-
izing flowers.
With regard to the protective coverings of these land-inhabiting Coenobites
it is worthy of mention that on the island of Minnikoy I captured a specimen so
large that it had taken to an empty half cocoanut shell, which it was carrying
about over its abdomen ; and another of such exceptional size that it apparently
could find nothing at all big enough for a portable house, and so was going about
quite unprotected, like a little Birgus.
3 .
O n t h e C o u r t i n g A t t i t u d e s o f t h e F i d d l e rC
r a b — G e l a s i m u s a n n u l i p e s
Edw.
The genus of amphibious Ocypodoid crabs which for the past eighty years
has been universally known as Gelasimus, but to which the name Uca—given to
it by an ancient mistaken identification—has been recently re-applied by certain
lovers of the jots and tittles of the law, is interesting on account of its habits no
less than for its geographical distribution.
Its species are not only found on the shores of the Mediterranean, but they
occur on the shores of all the warmer seas to the farthest west and east—from
the Atlantic coasts of America to the Pacific coast of the same continent. As
they are all burrowing crabs, of pronounced amphibious habits—being, in fact,
inhabitants of estuarine mud-flats—their geographical range can hardly be attri-
buted, as it can be in the case of swimming and drift-wood crabs like Varuna and
Plagusia, to the influence of oceanic currents, but may more fairly be held to
imply the former existence of land connexions.
The Gelasimi, like their relatives the Ocypodes, are among the most intel-
ligent of the crustacean class, their lives being full of keen, varied, and well-direct-
ed purpose, in constructing burrows in suitable spots, in hunting for food cast up
by the sea, and in avoiding enemies, which include active birds like the Brahrniny
kite ; and at times the males, in one species at any rate, engage in
fierce tournaments to win possession of the females. The remarkable difference between the
sexes shows what an important part these love -affairs occupy in the lives of these
little crabs; for while. the female has short and slender, chelipeds, the adult male
has one of these appendages as big as, or even bigger than, the whole of the rest of