File:Marine biological report for the year ended and the half year ending (1918) (14772167014).jpg

Identifier: marinebiological41918cape (find matches)
Title: Marine biological report for the year ended ... and the half year ending ..
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors:
Subjects: Marine biology
Publisher: Cape Town : Cape Times Ltd., Govt. printers
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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r, with a very delicate raisedand toothed margin, studded everywhere with yellowish,transparent hairs. The feet are all chelate, while in the com-mon crayfish the first pair only have this character. Thisfirst account of the Cape lobster was the beginning of thetrouble and doubt, which remained attached to the animalfor the next hundred years. The statement that all the legsare provided with claws or chelae, and that the animal livesin mountain streams were the chief difiiculties in the way ofidentifying this supposed crayfish. The animal is again mentioned under the name Astacuscapensis in 1803 by Latreiile, and, in 1837, Milne-Edwards- apparently decided that the chelate character of all the legs ^was an error of observation, for he regards it as a species oflobster, which he calk Homarus capensis. His descriptionis as follows :— Body slender. Rostrum flattened, muchshorter than the peduncle of the outer antennae and finelydenticulated on the edges. Wrist granular, hands elongate,
Text Appearing After Image:
The Cap:? Lobster Hnmarus capensis). 46 very compressed, furnished on the outer edge with a finelydenticulate crest and covered with hairs above. Length aboutfive inches. There is evidence that this description is froman actual specimen of the animal. In 1841 de Haan mentioned Homanus capensis with littleadditional information, and in 1843 Krauss mentions it withno further details than that he had never seen it in Natal. In 1878 Huxley wrote : I must myself confess to be ina hopeless state of perplexity respecting the Crayfish orLobster which is said to occur at the Cape of Good Hope.He thinks it impossible to suppose that Herbst could havemade a mistake as to all the legs of the animal being chelate,and this is one of the chief stumbling blocks in the determina-tion of the animal. In 1895 Herrick thus refers to the Cape Lobster : A thirdform Homanus capensis has been imperfectly described fromthe Cape of Good Hope, but it is doubtful if it belongs to thisgenus. In the year 1890 I was

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