﻿86 Aiinals of the South African Museum. 



have varied material available for study. The Comatularum 

 group is distinguished from the rest by having " supraorbital 

 spines insignificant compared to the rostrum," while the others 

 have these spines " at least equal to the rostrum in import- 

 ance." Our South African species does not conform to either 

 condition, but neither does CoutiOre's own, S. imraneomeris, 

 1905, since there the variable rostrum is described as always 

 more or less, though not very considerably, longer than the 

 supraorbital spines. 



Synalpheus anisocheir, n. sp. 

 Plate LXXXYII. 



Rostrum twice as long as breadth at the base, supraorbital spine 

 not reaching the level of the rostral apex. Telson at base twice 

 as broad as the interval between its posterolateral teeth ; between 

 these the margin is produced to rather less than a semicircle, fringed 

 with (about 30) plumose setae, a notch at each corner containing a 

 small and a larger spine, the dorsal spines wide apart, the anterior 

 pair not quite symmetrically placed, but in line with the lateral teeth 

 the left-hand spine is slightly above, the right-hand slightly liclow 

 the middle. 



Peduncle of first antenna with spine of first joint longer, but the 

 trunk rather shorter than second and third joints combined ; the 

 shorter flagellum with the stouter portion 10-jointed, as long as 

 the peduncle, the last five joints carrying sensory filaments, the ter- 

 minal point free, the slender continuation showing 6 joints, but 

 imperfect ; the slender flagellum is more than twice the length of 

 the stout portion of its companion. In the second antennae the long 

 joint or carpus of the peduncle reaches a little beyond the end of the 

 long spine of the scale, this tooth reaching well beyond the blade 

 of the scale and remaining free from it to below the middle ; the 

 blade itself is apically rounded and fringed with setae round the 

 apex and inner margin, the remaining portion of the flagellum is 

 28-jointed, as long as the peduncle, and by its stoutness rather 

 suggesting a length exceeding that of the first antennae. Couti^re 

 assigns to the Comatularmn group " antennules shorter than the 

 antennae," but to the other groups " antennules at least equal to 

 the antennae." I am forced to join the conspiracy of silence 

 which in the description of species seems invariably to leave this 

 part of the organism indeterminate. 



