Annals of the South African Museum. 



1899. Athanas, Coutiere, Ann. Sci. Nat., These " Alpheidae," passim. 

 1905. ,, Coutiere, Fauna Maldive-Laccadive Archip., vol. 2, 



pt. 4, p. 856. 

 1908. ,, Coutiere, Bull. Soc. Philomathique, n. Ser., vol. 11, 



No. 5, p. 2. 

 1911. de Man, Siboga Exp., vol. 39a', p. 144. 



ATHANAS, sp. 



The specimen, an ovigerous female, was in a fragmentary condi- 

 tion, having none of its peraeopods except one member of the second 

 pair, and the flagella of both pairs of antennae imperfect. Hence its 

 systematic position cannot well be determined. The carapace agrees 

 with A. nitescens, but the first joint of the first antennae is little 

 longer than the second, the eleven remaining joints of its flagellum 

 show no sign of a division, and the stylocerite springs nearly from 

 the base of the peduncle and overlaps the base of its third joint. 

 The scale of the second antennae is very broad, the tooth of the 

 straight margin not reaching beyond the broadly convex distal 

 margin. In each mandible the excisor process has 12 teeth, 6 large 

 and 6 small, more or less regularly graduated from each corner in a 

 broad curve ; the second joint of the palp is fringed round the distal 

 half or rather more with long setae. In the second maxillipeds the 

 second and third joints are coalesced, the fifth joint is short, having 

 the tongue-like process of the sixth bent against and beyond it, 

 carrying as it were in transverse attachment the spinose finger, a 

 broad short strip. 



The second peraeopod has the third and fourth joints subequal in 

 length, the first division of the wrist nearly as long as the other 

 four combined, the second and third scarcely shorter than the fourth, 

 and these three combined scarcely longer than the fifth ; the chela is 

 as long as the three preceding divisions of the wrist combined, the 

 finger as long as the palm. 



The branches of the uropods are not quite so broad as the telson, 

 the inner subequal to it in length, the outer a little longer, with the 

 part following the diaeresis broader than long. The broad convex 

 distal margin of the telson has markings indicative of 14 pairs of 

 setae within the pair of teeth and attendant spines at the corners ; 

 there are two pairs of dorsal spines not far from the smooth slightly 

 converging lateral margins, the upper pair a little above, the lower a 

 little below, the middle of the telson. 



Total length 15 mm., the telson 2-5 mm. 



Locality. False Bay, St. James (taken by Dr. Gilchrist). 

 A 1296. 



