Carcinology

The crustaceans of this archipelago are far from having been fully studied; only one group or another has received a little attention from a few naturalists.

The Decapods are represented by a few dozen species in the private collections in Funchal. These species can be roughly divided as follows: 40 among the Brachyura, 15 among the Anomura and 30 among the Macrura.

Of the Anomura, or Decapods with anomalous tails, mention should be made of Dromia vulgaris and Homala spinifrons, which live in the bay of Funchal and in many other places beyond a depth of 15 braças; the caranguejola de natura (Homola Cuvieri), the largest crustacean known in Madeira, rarely caught on deep bottoms; and finally the genus Pagurus, represented by several species, some belonging to the shore and others to deeper water. Among the latter, P. callidus and P. striatus deserve mention for their great size.

Crustaceans of the genus Pagurus are known as caranguejolas, which is in fact what fishermen generally call crustaceans that are of no use at all. In certain localities these Pagurus are extremely abundant in rock pools at the water’s edge. As their abdomen is soft, they slip into a mollusc shell, one of the many to be found empty. This shell usually belongs to the genera Trochus, Columbella, Mitra, Nassa and Murex, and less often to Bittium, Triton, Cassis, Ranella, Natica, Pleurotona, Cypriaea or Scalaria; even land snails (Helix, Bulimus) will serve them, or the loose tubes of molluscs of the genus Vermetus and of worms of the genus Serpula.

The Macrura, or long-tailed decapods, include among others the genus Galathea, found on both shallow and deep bottoms; the lobster with broad, short, leaf-like antennae (Scyllarus latus), highly prized for its fine flavour and relatively frequent in shallow places such as the waters off Jardim do Mar (‘garden by the sea’), where the fisherman gathers it by diving to the bottom and taking it directly by hand; Arctus ursus, allied to the preceding species but not edible, sometimes dredged at about 20 braças (fathoms) off Funchal and at 90 off Porto Santo; the lobster with long, thick antennae (Palinurus vulgaris), also called lagostim or lagostão, less common than the flat-antennaed lobster already mentioned, and caught like it, either by diving or accidentally on hook tackle or in nets; the beautiful and rare Nephrops norvegicus; and finally the shrimps and prawns, among them the interesting and rare Funchalia Woodwardi, Penaeus Edwardsiannu, Palaemon squilla and

Crangon vulgaris, some of which are caught in rush pots as bait for choice fish, or very rarely for sale at the market.

James Yate Johnson wrote on three decapods: Description of a New Species of Cancer obtained at Madeira (Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1861) and Description of a New Genus and a New Species of Macrurous Decapod Crustacean belonging to the Penaeidae discovered at Madeira (ibid., 1867).

In the order Stomatopoda the sea around Madeira offers us, among others, the elegant species of the genus Squilla, such as S. mantis, S. Desmarestii, etc.

The order Cumacea, which is also represented, would deserve investigation by competent specialists.

The marine isopods comprise several genera that live on fish, on the rocks of the shore or in other situations, but none of them has yet been the subject of detailed study. Only the terrestrial isopods have been dealt with, by Dr Alfred M. Norman, who published The Land Isopoda of Madeira, 1899.

Many forms of amphipods exist in the sea, on the beaches and in freshwater streams, but the group lacks thorough investigation.

This is what we have to say about the great division of the Malacostraca. On the Entomostraca, the following occurs to us:

The marine copepods were studied in part by Isaac C. Thompson, who, in the plankton he collected in the bay of Funchal and in the Canary Islands, was able to record 64 species, 6 of them new to science. He wrote on the subject Copepoda of Madeira and the Canary Islands, with description of New Genera and Species (Linnean Society Journal, Zoology, 1887). There are, however, many others, above all fish parasites, that have yet to be recorded. Representatives of this group, such as the curious Cyclops and others, are also found in certain fresh waters, particularly in water held in tanks.

There are several freshwater ostracods, among which the Cypris, at times abundant on Madeira and Porto Santo, may be cited; among the marine forms is the remarkable Laura Gerardiae, a parasite of the luminous coral Gerardia

Lamarckii, which was so admirably studied by Lacaze-Duthiers in a masterly monograph.

In inland waters the order of the cladocerans is also in evidence, and probably that of the phyllopods.

Finally, of the barnacles (Cirripedia), 13 species were mentioned by Darwin in his work on this order, but the number collected is already higher at present.

Besides the scant literature cited, 8 species of the great division of the Entomostraca were described in 1855 by Dr S. Fischer in the proceedings of the Royal Bavarian Academy (Academia Real da Baviera).