The northern sea area of the South China Sea is situated between 107.5°～122.5°East longitude and 17°～25° North latitude with high temperature and a large quantity of rainfall which belongs to the oceanic climate of the torrid zone and subtropical zone. From September, 1994 to June, 1998,during the research on the species of Horseshoe crab within the scope between the south from North gulf and the north to Xiamen, choosing Xiamen, Shantou, Wuchuan, Donghaidao and Qishui as fixed positions and irregularly going to Xuwen and Suixi in Guangdong province and Fangcheng in Guangxi province, we found that there was only Tachypleus tridentatus in the northern sea area of the South China Sea and the sea area from Wuchuan to Xiamen, and found that there were two species of horseshoe crab which were Tachypleus tridentatus and Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda in the southern area to East Sea Island, referring to East Sea Island, Qishui, Xuwen, Suixi and Fangcheng, most of which were Tachypleus tridentatus, and found a great number of larvae of Tachypleus tridentatus including zooids with different sizes from 7cm bodily length to mature. In Minan we found not only big colonies of adult Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda , but also a great number of larvae of Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda with different body size from 7cm body length to maturity. All these show that the northern sea area of the South China Sea is the area where both Tachypleus tridentatus and Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda distribute and reproduce. On January 1st, 1998 at the town of Qishui in Leizhou, we found an adult male Horseshoe crab and majority of its eggs was immature, while the eggs with above 4mm diameters were only 0.87 percent but the eggs with below 1.0mm diameter was 58 percent(1 160 pills). It shows that Qishui is a place where Tachyplers tridentatus survive in the winter.
