. Carnegie Institution of Washington publication. 28 Papers from the Marine Biological Laboratory at Tortugas. In order to determine if Ocypoda would react to sound-waves the follow- ing experiments were tried: A flute was played upon and large stones were hit together while the observer was hidden 12 feet away, but no movement could be seen that would indicate that the oc3'podas were stimulated. The report of a pistol produced no apparent effect. During a heavy storm the peals of thunder were deafening, but several ocypodas which were along the beach did not return to their burrows nor cease
. Carnegie Institution of Washington publication. 28 Papers from the Marine Biological Laboratory at Tortugas. In order to determine if Ocypoda would react to sound-waves the follow- ing experiments were tried: A flute was played upon and large stones were hit together while the observer was hidden 12 feet away, but no movement could be seen that would indicate that the oc3'podas were stimulated. The report of a pistol produced no apparent effect. During a heavy storm the peals of thunder were deafening, but several ocypodas which were along the beach did not return to their burrows nor cease their feeding. These ex- periments and observations indicate that Ocypoda does not hear, but they are by no means conclusive, and a series of such careful experiments as those performed by Fielde and Parker (1904) on ants and Yerkes (1905) on the green frog (Rana clamitans) would well bear repeating before it should be said that Ocypoda does not react to atmospheric sounds. Although it does not seem probable, it might then be found that notes causing a very small number or a very large number of vibrations of the air per second had an effect. Ocypoda while eating produces a grinding sound by the movements of its mouth-parts, and at times it also makes a noise resembling the " peep " of young birds, but I have no proof that these sounds stimulate the otocysts of other crabs. Prentiss (1901), in his review of the crustacean literature (p. 228), has cited two well-known examples of noises, the one a case of stridulation in PaUnurus vulgaris,'^ described first by Mobius (1867) and later (more cor- rectly probably) by T. J. Parker (1878), and the other the pistol-like report of Alpheus described by Goode (1878). To these may be added the stridu- lation of Ocypoda, although I have never been fortunate enough to hear it. Often at night I have stayed on the beach among the feeding ocypodas in the hope of hearing the stridulation, and I have listened at the en- trance of the b
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