Chapter II.

1. Of the malocostraca, there is one genus, of carabi,[111] and another, very like it, of astaci;[112] these differ from the carabi, which have no claws, and in some other respects. There is a third genus, of carides,[113] and a fourth, of carcini.[114] There are more genera of carides, and of carcini; for among the carides are the cyphæ,[115] the crangon,[116] and a small species, for these never grow large.

2. The family of carcini is more various, and not so easily enumerated; the largest genus is that called maia,[117] the next to this the pagurus,[118] and the Heracleot carcini; and, again, those that live in rivers. The other genera are small, and have not received any name. On the Phenician coast there are some that they call horsemen, because they run so fast that it is difficult to catch them, and when opened, they are empty, because they have no pasture. There is another small genus like carcini, but in shape they resemble astaci.

3. All these creatures, as I observed before, have their hard and shelly coats on the outsides of their bodies in the place of skin, the fleshy part is internal. Their under parts resemble plates, upon which the females deposit their ova; the carabi have five feet on each side, including the claws; the carcini, also, have in all ten feet, including the claws, which are last. Of the carides, the cypha have five on each side; those near the head are sharp, and five others on each side of the stomach have flat extremities; they have no plates upon the under part of their body; those on the upper part are like the carabi.

4. The crangon is different, for it has, first of all, four plates on each side, and, afterwards, three slight ones, continuous with those on each side, and the greater part of the remainder of its body is apodal; all the feet are directed outwards to the side, like those of insects; but the claws, in those that have them, all turned inwards. The carabus also has a tail, and five fin-like appendages. The cypha, among the carides, has a tail, with four fin-like appendages. The crangon has fin-like processes on each side of the tail, and the middle of them is spinous on both sides; but this part is wide in the crangon, and sharp in the cypha. The carcini alone are without a tail; the body of the carabi and carides is elongated, that of the carcini is rounded.

5. The male carabus is different from the female, for the female has the first foot divided; in the male it is formed of a single claw, and the fin-like process on the lower part is large in the female, and interchanged with each other in the neck; in the male they are small and not interchanged. In the male, also, the last feet are furnished with large and sharp processes like spurs; in the female these are small and smooth. They all have two large and rough processes, like horns, before their eyes, and two, smaller and smooth, below.

6. The eyes of all these animals are hard, and capable of motion, inwards, outwards, and to the side; the same is the nature of the carcini, in which they are even more moveable. In colour the astacus is all of a dull white, sprinkled with black; it has eight small feet, as far as the large ones; after these the large feet are far greater and wider at the extremity than in the carabus, and they are unequal in size; for on the right side the broad part at the end is long and smooth, on the left side the same part is thick and round; they are both divided from the extremity like a jaw, with teeth above and below, only that in those on the right the teeth are all small and sharp, and they are sharp at the extremity of the left side; in the middle they are like molar teeth; in the lower part are four close together, but in the upper part three, but not close together.

7. In both claws the upper part is moved and pressed down upon the lower; both are placed sideways in position, as if intended by nature for seizure and pressure; above these large feet are two rough ones, a little below the mouth; and still lower, the branchial organs around the mouth, which are rough and numerous, and these are continually in motion; it bends and approximates its two rough feet towards its mouth; the feet near the mouth have smooth appendages.

8. It has two teeth like the carabus, above these the long horns, much shorter and smoother than in the carabus; four others of the same form as these, but still shorter and smoother; and above these are placed its eyes, which are small and short, and not large like those of the carabus. The part above the eyes is acute and rough, as it were a forehead, and larger than in the carabus: on the whole, the head is sharper and the thorax much wider than in the carabus, and its whole body is more fleshy and soft: of its right feet, four are divided at the extremity, and four not divided.

9. The part called the neck is externally divided into five portions, the sixth and last division is wide and has five plates; in the inside are four rough plates, upon which the females deposit their ova. On the outside of each of these which have been mentioned, there is a short and straight spine, and the whole body, with the part called the thorax, is smooth, and not rough as in the carabus. On the outside of the large feet there are great spines. The female does not in any way differ from the male, for whether the male or female have larger claws, they are never both of them equal.

10. All these animals take in sea-water through their mouths; the carcini also exhale a small portion of that which they have taken in, and the carabi do this through the branchiform appendages, for the carabi have many branchiform appendages. All these animals have two teeth: the carabi have two front teeth, and then a fleshy mouth instead of a tongue, from this an œsophagus continued on to the stomach. And the carabi have a small œsophagus before the stomach, and from this a straight intestine is continued. In the caraboid animals and the carides, this is continued to the tail in a straight passage, by which they eject their excrements, and deposit their ova. In the carcini this is in the middle of the folded part, for the place wherein they deposit their ova is external in these also.

11. All the females also, besides the intestines, have a place for their ova, and the part called mytis[119] or mecon, which is greater or less, and the peculiar differences may be learned by studying the individual cases. The carabi, as I have observed, have two large and hollow teeth, in which there is a juice resembling the mytis, and, between the teeth, a piece of flesh resembling a tongue; from the mouth a short œsophagus extends to a membranous stomach; in the part of this nearest the mouth are three teeth, two opposite and one below.

12. And from the side of the stomach there is a simple intestine, which is of equal thickness throughout, reaching to the anus. All these parts belong to the carabi, carides, and carcini; and, besides these, the carabi have a passage suspended from the breast and reaching to the anus; in the female this performs the office of a uterus, in the male it contains the spermatic fluid. This passage is in the cavity of the flesh, so as to appear to be between portions of the flesh, for the intestine is toward the curved part, but the passage towards the cavity in the same way as in quadrupeds. In the male this part differs in nothing from the female, for both are smooth and white, and contain an ochreous fluid, and in both sexes it is appended to the breast.

13. The ova and spirals occupy the same position in the carides. The male is distinguished from the female by having in the flesh upon the breast two distinct white bodies, in colour and position like the tentacula of the sepia; these appendages are spiriform, like the mecon of the whelk; their origin is from the acetabula, which are placed under the last feet. These contain a red sanguineous flesh, which is smooth to the touch, and not like flesh. From the whelk-like appendage there is another spiral fold, about as thick as a thread, below which there are two sand-like bodies appended to the intestine, containing a seminal fluid. These are found in the male, but the female has ova of a red colour; these are joined to the abdomen, and on each side of the intestine to the fleshy part of the body, enclosed in a thin membrane. These are their internal and external parts.