SOUTH AFRICAN CRUSTACEA, 



PARI II. 



Rev. THOMAS R. R. STEBBING, 



M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S., F.Z.S. 



During the last two or three years Dr. Gilchrist's '" ^larine- 

 Investigations " have produced a very copious supply of crus- 

 taceans, and for the very highly satisfactory state in which the 

 specimens have reached England he wishes me to recognize the 

 valuable assistance he has received from Captain Turbyne. In 

 this second instalment of my report several species are figured 

 and described which claim the interest of being new to science. 

 Others have been treated with more or less fuhiess of detail in 

 order to establish or discuss their identity with forms already 

 named by earlier authorities. This treatment seems especially 

 requisite whenever a species is assigned to a locality distant from 

 its previously known range. It certainly involves much 

 repetition in the literature of natural history^ but without it 

 questions of distribution may be completely confused by the list 

 of a local fauna. All depends on the sometimes shadowy 

 guarantee of the compiler's credit- In the present report the 

 point which has the best right to engage attention is, I venture 

 to think, the rapidly accumulating evidence that, at least in regard 

 to Crustacea, the marine fauna of South Africa stretches forth its 

 hands both to the east and to the west, or rather, swings them 

 round to ail points of the compass. Those species which it claims 

 for its own make often a very close approach to oriental and 

 occidental forms which in some cases have hitherto been knovrn 

 onlv from distant localities. In some instances a South African 

 form is to all appearance quite indistinguishable from a European 

 or other far-off species, but future research may show that the 

 interval is bridged by many intermediate stations. That some 

 forms vary considerably in the captures of a single dredging, 

 while others seem to remain constant over a vast range, adds 

 considerably to the responsibility of specific determination. This 

 difference of conditions, however, may be explained as more 

 apparent than real. Species that are gregarious and so get taken 

 in large family groups, display conspicuously the variations of 

 A 1847. ' S 



