LAND-CRAB. Any species of crab (q.v.) which in a mature state is not aquatic, having become adapted to a terrestrial mode of life. Such arc now grouped into a family, the Geear einithr. and divided into several genera. The species are numerous. and all inhabitants of warm countries. They very much resemble the eonunon crabs of our shores, and are remarkable as animals breathing by gills, and yet not aquatic, some of them inhabiting very dry places, where they burrow in the sand or earth; but some degree of moisture is absolutely necessary to them to prevent the desiccation of their gills. Many, and probably all of them, carry their eggs to the water, for which purpose some of them annually migrate from considerable distances to the sea; but there is reason to suppose that some deposit their eggs in fresh water. • The black crab, or mountain crab (C;-ran-in/is ruri cola). of the \Vest Indies. usually resides in woods and on hills often two or three miles from the sea, which, however, it regularly visits in the months of April and Like most of the other species, this land-crab is active chiefly during the night and except in rainy weather it seldom leaves its burrow by day. It feeds chiefly on vegetable food. When in season, it is highly esteemed for the table, as some of the other land crabs also are; and its spawn or roe, which be fore being deposited forms a bunch as large as a hen's egg• is accounted a delieacy. Another
species of Ceeareinus abundant in Jamaica is known as the white land-erah. It occurs in dry and somewhat sandy fields near or at some distance from the shore. It readies a large size, the body being four or live inches across, and the legs very long. The color is dull grayish-white. During its migration to the ocean this crab is a great nuisance in sonic localities from its habit of going over, under, or through the houses, but not around them. Thu negroes eat these crabs, lint they are not relished by the whites. A land-crab of Ceylon (Ocypoda) is so trouble some on account of the burrows which it makes in the dry soil of the equestrian promenade at Colombo, that men are kept in regular employ ment to fill them up. The grass-lands of some parts of India swarm with small land-crabs, which feed on the grass or on green stalks of rice. The hermit-crab (q.v.) also occasionally adopts a terrestrial life; a common West Indian species (('enobite diogenes) occurs at Key \Vest, far from water, living under stones in the shells of land-snails. See COCOANUT CRAB.