Notes on Some Small Crustacea from the " Goldseeker" Collections. 5 



Dr. Caiman, in describing the species, remarks that " The characters 

 of this peculiar form do not coincide with those of any of the admitted 

 genera of Diastylvhe ; " and the Rev. T. R. R. Stebbing, in describing 

 a closely allied form for which he has established the genus Die. and 

 the family Dicidre, alludes to Caiman's species and says— ' ; I venture 

 to think that it will prove to be a species of the new genus here 

 instituted."* As the " Goldseeker's " specimens appear to be 

 identical with Caiman's species, which in turn agrees so closely with 

 the form described by Stebbing, I have ventured to place it in the 

 genus instituted by that author. 



Description of a Large Ostracod. 



Genus Gi<jantocypris, G. W. Midler, 1895. 

 Gvjantocijpris (?) pellueida, G. W. Muller. Plate II. 

 1895. Gigantocypris pellueida, G. W. Muller, Bull. Mus., Comp. 

 Zool, Harvard, Vol. XXVII., No. 5. p. 164, PI. 1, 6, 7, II, 

 16, 22, 23 ; PI. 2, fig. 11. 



Shell subglobose, rather longer than broad when viewed from the 

 side, but seen in front the width is slightly greater posteriorly. 

 Antennal notch small and near the anterior end. Eyes large, 

 contiguous, and of a brownish colour. The valves are open along the 

 ventral aspect, and about half-way round the proximal end to a little 

 beyond the antennal notch ; round the distal end and along the entire 

 dorsal aspect they are closely joined together and almost coalescent, 

 their junction being indicated only by a faint inconspicuous line ; 

 they are also apparently unprovided with any hinge arrangement. 

 The valves are chitonous, very thin, semi-transparent, and appear to 

 be without any calcareous stiffening. The animal shows dimly 

 through the shell, and the long vermiform appendages are distinctly 

 seen. The surface of the shell, when viewed under a low power of 

 the microscope, appears to be covered with very minute prickles. 

 Length of the shell, about 15-5 mm. (fully half an inch); width, 

 14 mm. ; thickness, about 12 mm. 



The antennules are composed of seven joints ; the first two are 

 tolerably stout, but the others are slender. The first joint is rather 

 longer than the second, the second and fourth are nearly equal in 

 length, and both are longer than the one intermediate. The fifth joint 

 is rather shorter than the preceding one, and the two end joints are 

 small. Several elongated seta?, some of them ringed, spring from the 

 end joints, but the other joints are only provided with a few short 

 terminal bristles, as shown by the drawing (PL II., fig- 5). The 

 formula shows approximately the proportional lengths of the different 

 joints of the antennules : — 



Number of the joints, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 

 Proportional lengths, 23 15 10 13 11 4 3 



The masticatory process on the basal joint of the mandibular foot 

 is undivided, bluntly rounded at the end, and armed with a few short 

 tolerably stout spical spines ; the second joint of the mandibular foot 

 is considerably enlarged and provided with a stout appendage, slightly 



* Annals of the South African Museum, vol. vi., p. 416 (1910). 



