NO. 3 BARNARD : THE PHOXOCEPHALIDAE 203 



Paraphoxus abronius, new species 

 (Plate 5) 



Diagnosis of female. — Head broad, rostrum very narrow and rather 

 short ; eyes medium in size. 



Epistome produced anteriorly into a very long, sharp process. 



Maxilliped palp article 4 apically simple. 



Gnathopods 1-2: article 5 much longer than 6, the latter moderately 

 broad, palm nearly transverse. Ratio of lengths of articles 5-6 : Gnatho- 

 pod 1 = 26:20, Gnathopod 2 = 24:18. 



Peraeopod 3 : article 4 nearly as wide as 2, article 6 slightly longer 

 than 5. Ratio of widths of articles 2, 4, 5, 6 — 28:26:24:10. 



Peraeopod 4: ratio of widths of articles 2, 4, 5, 6 = 43:24:17:8. 



Peraeopod 5 : article 2 slightly longer than broad, the ratio of width 

 to length being 53 :58 ; lower edge slightly convex and reaching nearly 

 to end of article 4, sweep point near middle of article 4; posterior edge 

 bearing about 6 medium sized teeth, larger than in P. epistomus. 



Uropods 1-2: margins of peduncles and rami armed with thin spines. 



Uropod 3 : inner ramus nearly three-fourths as long as outer, article 

 2 of outer ramus about one-third as long as article 1. 



Telson slender, apices narrow, lateral notches with 2-3 slender spines. 



Third epimeron: posterior edge moderately convex, lower corner 

 slightly produced, rounded, and bearing 2 setae. 



Male. — Sexual dimorphism typical. 



Holotype. — AHF No. 546, male, 3 mm. 



Type locality. — Station 2607-54, off Huntington Beach, California, 

 33-39-59 N, 118-01-59 W, 5 fms, compact black sand, Mar. 3, 1954. 



Remarks. — This species differs from P. epistomus (Shoemaker) in 

 the following ways: (1) the larger teeth of peraeopod 5; (2) the very 

 narrow rostrum ; ( 3 ) the lack of a large apical peduncular spine on uro- 

 pod 1 ; (4) the longer hind edge on the third epimeron in the female. 



Similar to the case in P. lucubrans n. sp. a collection of typical P. 

 epistomus near Pt. Conception contained a single, rather large specimen 

 which by definition should be placed in P. abronius but which, except for 

 the very narrow rostrum, would be considered a mutant of P. epistomus. 

 As with P. lucubrans it is possible that P. abronius is a northern species 

 having a sporadic occurrence in southern California where it meets its 

 closely related neighbor P. epistomus and where infrequent hybridiza- 

 tion might occur to confuse the discreteness of these populations. 



