176 SUMMARY Off CURRKNT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



«• Crustacea. 



Primitive Malacostracan.* — 0. A . Sayce describes Koonunga cursor 

 g. et sp. n., a remarkable Crustacean from fresb-water reedy pools near 

 Melbourne. He regards it as the most primitive sessile-eyed Malacos- 

 tracan hitherto known. Its nearest ally is the stalk-eyed Anaspiih* 

 tasmanue G. M. Thomson, which it resembles in general appearance, 

 but it requires the definition of a new family (Koonungidae). The 

 thorax has its anterior segment fused with the head, leaving seven 

 distinct subequal segments. The eyes are sessile, there is no antennarv 

 scale, the mandibles have a single dentate cutting-edge and molar ex- 

 pansion without any " spine-row " or its equivalent. The maxillipeds 

 are like those of Anaspis, but without any trace of gnatho-basic lobes. 

 The branchiae and the swimming branches of the legs are like those 

 of Anaspida?. The last pair of legs is flexed in the opposite direction 

 to the preceding ones. The pleopods are uniramous, except the first 

 two pairs in the male. 



As is well known, Anaspides differs from other Schizopods in having 

 no vestige of a carapace, and in having eight distinct thoracic somites. 

 This new form differs markedly in having sessile eyes, in having no 

 antennary scale, and in the coalescence of the first thoracic segment 

 with the head. The loss of stalked eyes, carapace, and scale-like exo- 

 podite on the antenna, marks Koonungia as the most primitive sessile- 

 eyed Malacostracan at present known, and it is no doubt a very ancient 

 type. It is remarkably active — running, swimming, and springing 

 forcibly forwards. It shuns strong light. 



Brachyura and Anomura from the North Pacific. f — William 

 Stimpson, who died in 1872, made an important report on the crabs 

 and hermit-crabs collected by the North Pacific Exploration, 1853-6. 

 This report was at first supposed to have been destroyed by a fire in 

 1871, in which much valuable material was lost, but it was afterwards 

 found at the Navy Department, and has lain for many years unpublished 

 at the Smithsonian Institution. It is now published as an historical 

 document, under the able editorship of M. J. Rath bun, who has given 

 the current or accepted names where these differ from Stimpson's. The 

 illustrations are from pencil drawings, made, it is supposed, by Stimpson 

 himself. 



Pyocephalus cooperi.J — Henry Woodward discusses this primitive 

 Schizopod crustacean from the Coal-measures, devoting particular atten- 

 tion to the marsupial plates of the adult female. There are six or seven 

 broad, scale-like, imbricated plates or oostegites forming the marsupium 

 in which the eggs and the immature young were carried. 



Male of Dexamine thea.§ — Alexander Patience describes this form, 

 which has hitherto escaped observation. The reason is probably due 



* Victorian Naturalist, xxiv. (1907) pp. 117-20. 



t Smithsonian Misc. Coll., xlix. (1907) 240 pp. (26 pis.). 



% Geol. Mag., iv. (1907) pp. 400-7 (1 pi. and 2 figs.). 



§ Ann. Nat. Hist., series 8, i. (1908) pp. 117-22 (1 pi.). 



