﻿South African Crustacea. 43 



while for C. incertus this point is not noticed. The third 

 peraeopod is longer than the fifth. The larger specimen, a 

 female with eggs, measured 58 mm., the smaller, from which 

 the figures were drawn, was about 40 mm. in length. 



Localities. Cape Point NE. by E. 6 miles (Cape Colony) ; 

 depth 80 fathoms. A 1269 ; and Cape Natal W. by N. | N. 

 11 miles (Natal) ; depth 185 fathoms. A 1271. 



Two opposite questions suggest themselves, one, whether 

 C. incertus may not be a synonym of C. crassicornis, the other, 

 whether, if correctly described, they should not be assigned to 

 different genera. 



Family NEMATOCAKCINIDAE. 



1888. Nematocarcinidae, Bate, Eep. Voy. Challenger, vol. 24, pp. xiii, 



809, 927. 

 1914. „ Stebbing, Tr. Eoy. Soc. Edinb., vol. 50, 



pt. 2, p. 296 (with synonymy). 



Gen. NEMATOCAECINUS, A. Milne-Edwards. 

 1881. Nematocarciiius, A. Milne-Edwards, Ann. Sci. Nat., Zool., 



Ser. 6, vol. 11, art. 4, p. 14. 

 1914. ,, Stebbing, Tr. Eoy. Soc. Edinb., vol. 50, pt. 2, 



p. 297 (with synonymy). 

 1914. „ Balss, Abhandl. K. Bayer. Ak. Wiss., Suppl. 



vol. 2, pt. 10, p. 22. 

 This genus is well fitted to excite wonder at the length and 

 tenuity of the flagella in both pairs of antennae and of the 

 three median joints in the last three pairs of peraeopods. 

 Admiration, however, may well be tinged with disappointment 

 when the student finds that, owing to these very characters, 

 all his specimens are mutilated. In the present collection not 

 a single example could be found with the third peraeopod 

 complete, the fourth and fifth pairs offering respectively no 

 more than two and three perfect limbs. Similarly, the more 

 or less elongate rostrum, scarcely ever absolutely uninjured, 

 is often seriously damaged or broken short off at the base. 

 Spence Bate, who uses the length of the rostrum and its 

 denticulation to justify a variety of specific distinctions, in his 

 discussion of N. productus practically admits that the criterion 

 is untrustworthy. For two species, N. undulatipes and N. 

 tenuirostris, Bate gives the character that the finger in the 



