Neiv Species of Cypridina. 31 



Although it is assumed from an examination of the already 

 known species of Cypridina that the males only are endowed 

 with swimming power/ the present occurrence of females in some 

 abundance on the bait let down off Williamstown seems 

 to show that this species may prove an exception. That 

 the turgid forms were females there can be no donbt, since the 

 eggs were seen in some instances within the valves ; the 

 females of this genus hatching their young within the carapace) 

 and not depositing them on water plants like most other Ostra- 

 coda. As in the species whose females are non-natatory, the 

 terminal joints of the first pair of antennae in the females of C. 

 thielei are not tufted, but the males bear long tufts, which 

 undoubtedly give them greater swinmiing power. 



Affinities of the Species. — -In the form of the carapace C. thielei 

 appears to be quite distinct from any hitherto described species. 

 C. formosa, Dana,'^ may be considered one of the nearest allied 

 forms, differing in having subgqual extremities viewed laterally, 

 in the sharp anterior beak, and strongly pronounced punctations 

 or depressions on the surface of the valve. Brady's figure of a 

 specimen referred to Dana's species exhibits a blunt beak, as in 

 ours, but the carapace is altogether higher. 



The elongate oval outline of the above species is somewhat like 

 that of C. mediterranea, Costa. ,'^ but the latter has a sharp an- 

 terior beak, and the edge view shows the carapace to have 

 rounded ends. 



C. megalops, Sars,* also resembles our species in general form, 

 but this also has an acuminate beak, and in the lateral aspect the 

 valves are higher. In its ovately pointed edge-view C. megalops 

 agrees with C. thielei, but its greatest thickness is below the 

 region where it occurs in the latter. 



Habitat. — ^In moderately shallow water in Port Phillip and 

 Hobson's Bay, feeding upon decaying animal matter. 



1 Brady, G. S., Rep. Challenger Zool., pt. iii., 18S0, p. 151. 



2 United States Expl. Exped., Crustacea 18.5.5, p. 1296, pi. xci., fig. 5 ; also Brady, G. S., 

 Rep. Chall. Zool., pt. iii., 1880, p. 155, pi. xlii., figs. 9-11. 



3 " Fauna del Regno di Napoli," 1845 (?), pi. iv., figs. 1-14. See alsoG. S. Brady, " Men. 

 Marine and Freshwater Ostracoda of the N. Atlantic and N. W. Europe " Trans. R. Dublin 

 Soc, vol. v., ser. ii., part, xii., 1896, p 650, pi. liv., figs. 1, 2 ; pi. Iv., figs. 1-11. 



4 " Undersogelser Hardanger Fjordens Fauna, i. Crustacea." Vidensk-Selsk, Forhandl, 

 p. 278 ; also Brady, op. supra cit., pi. liv., figs. 5, 6. 



