550 BEV. T. R. R. STEBBING ON CRUSTACEANS [May 22, 



measured. The distinction of /. Jiargeri from /. pubescens is 



only effected by attributing to Dana's description and figures a 



minute accuracy to which they have no claim, and which at the 



date of their production was scarcely ever accorded to small 



crustaceans. Dana, for example, says " Caudnl stylets half as 



long as abdomen, three- or four-jointed,'' though his tig. 9 d shows 



the stylets with single-jointed rami and only about one-fourth as 



long as the pleon. That Pfeffer's Jcera antarctica may be an 



additional synonym is of necessity conjectural. The solitary 



specimen was imperfect and could not be dissected. The length 



is given as 3-2 mm., and the greatest breadth as not much more 



than one-fourth of the length ; just as Bovallius says of lais 



liargeri, " the body is elongate, linear, four times longer than 



broad." This, it is likely, refers to the male. In /. pubescens 



the female loses something of her slenderness of shape as the 



marsupium becomes inflated. On the other hand, Pfeffer 



definitely states that the finger is biunguiculate and that the 



3-unguiculate finger, which he, like Sars, attributes to Jcera, was 



not to be found on any of the limbs of the perseon. He also 



gives the colour as brownish, whereas the Falkland Island 



specimens better agree with Bovallius's account of /. hargeri, as 



" greenish white, almost hyaline." Pfeffer's description of the 



damaged first antennae and of the uropods tallies well with what 



is found in /. jpubescens. 



Mr. G. M. Thomson found Tasmanian specimens of /. pubescens 

 in a tube Muth '■'' Splicer oma quoycma M.-Ed\v.," but it may be 

 noticed that he also brought with him from Tasmania specimens 

 of Sphceroma gigas. Dr. Chilton found some of his New Zealand 

 specimens free, but others " on a large Sphceroma (probably 

 8. ohtusa Dana) in Port Chalmers." The following description 

 refers to the specimens found at the Falkland Islands on Sjjhceroma 

 gigas (or lance olatum). This association has been spoken of as 

 parasitic or semiparasitic. Apparently the small isopod makes use 

 of the large one as a kind of floating island, affixing its eggs to it, 

 and in adult life still clinging on but doing no harm to its animated 

 lodging, which occasionally accommodates some minute zoophytes 

 on similar terms. 



Body narrowly elliptical, peraeon wider than head or pleon, but 

 almost parallel-sided except under the influence of the developing 

 ova, when also the sides of the segments become less widely 

 separated than before. The sides on the upper part are fringed 

 with small hairs. The pleon has a very small first segment, 

 followed by a rounded shield, fringed with minute hairs and 

 slightly projecting obtusely between the uropods. Head widest 

 at the eyes, obtusely projecting between the first antennae ; in 

 dorsal view the epistome obtusely prominent in advauce of the 

 rostral projection. 



Eyes very small, wide apart, about at middle of the lateral 

 margins of the head, each w ith only two crystalline cones set in 

 dark pigment (see figure in Beddard's Report). First antennse 

 [34J 



