392 Records of the Indian Museum. [Vol XII, 



This genus is formed for the reception of a small and peculiar 

 Hippolytid of the most grotesque appearance, that lives on weeds 

 in the vicinity of Port Blair. On its appendages, including the 

 eyestalks, are long straggling hairs and these, in conjunction with 

 its colour and the unusual attitude it adopts, combine to give it a 

 most extraordinarily close resemblance to small tufts of algae. 



In most of the characters mentioned above the genus agrees 

 with Caiman's Trachycaris,^ though in outward appearance there 

 is the widest possible difference between them. The type and only 

 known species of Tr achy car is''- is that described by vSpence Bate 

 from the West Indies under the name Platyhema rugoswn. It 

 agrees with Phycocaris in having only two segments in the carpus 

 of the second peraeopods and in the great size of the endopods of 

 the second to fifth pairs of pleopods. The latter character, though 

 given without qualification in Caiman's diagnosis, is probably 

 found only in females. 



Phycocaris differs from Trachycaris in the absence of the antero- 

 lateral spine of the carapace and in the presence of an incisor-pro- 

 cess on the mandible.^ The latter feature is of considerable 

 importance and indicates that the genus is in reality allied to Thor 

 and Hippolyte rather than to Trachvcaris and other genera of the 

 Latreutid section of the family. From Thar , Hippolvte and the 

 peculiar N. Atlantic genus Cryptocheles, it is easily distinguished 

 by the number of segments in the second legs. 



Phycocaris simulans, sp. nov. 

 (Plate xxxvi, fig. 2). 



The carapace is arched above and is produced anteriorly to a 

 short and simple rostrum that reaches only a little beyond the end 

 of the basal antennular segment. On the frontal margin above 

 the eye there is, on either side, a short and stout supraorbital 

 spine. The antero- lateral (pterygostomian) spine is absent, but 

 there is a small spine at the base of the antenna; the antero- 

 inferior angle is rounded. The carapace is not carinate in the 

 middle line and bears a few long scattered hairs. 



The eyes are comparatively long and slender. In dorsal view 

 the cornea is not broader than the stalk and is about half its 

 length. There is no ocellus ; but at the junction of the cornea and 

 stalk there is a circlet of long hairs, a remarkable feature not 

 known in any other Hippolytid. 



The basal segment of the antennular peduncle (text fig. 2a) is 

 fully as long as the two following combined; its lateral process is 



I Caiman, A/in. Mag. Nat. Hist., (7), XVII, p. 33 {igob). 



'^ Platybema pristis, Nobili, \ Ann. Miis. civ. Genova, (2). XX, p. 233 (1S09) 

 should doubtless be referred lo the grenus Lntreittes. 



'i The statement that the mandible in Tracliycaris is wiliiout incisor-process i^ 

 i>i\cn by Caiman on the authority ot" Spence Bate. I have examined a specimen 

 J nigosiis and am able to confirm the accuracy of the observation. 



