﻿PYCNOGONIDA OF ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION — HEDGPETH 155 



Genus RHYNCHOTHORAX Dohrn, 1881 

 RHYNCHOTHORAX AUSTRALIS Hodgson 



Rhynchothorax australis Hodgson, 1907, pp. 57-58, pi. 8, fig. 3. — Calman, 1915b, 

 pp. 67-68, fig. 21.— GOEDON, 1932b, p. 122 ; 1944, pp. 67-68. 



RECORD OF COLLECTIONS 



Station 47, 1 male. 



This species ranges from off Wilkes Land to Ross Sea and the 

 Antarctic Archipelago. 



Genus BOEHMIA Hoek, 1881 



(7) BOEHMIA DUBIA, new species 



Figure 18 

 record of collections 



Holotype (U. S. N. M. No. 87608) : 1 female (?), station 104, off Cape Royds, 

 Ross Island, 58 fathoms, January 29, 1948. 

 Paratype (U. S. N. M. No. 87609) : 1 juvenile. 



This little beast is an ambiguous anomaly, and on the basis of these 

 specimens alone it cannot be safely referred to an established genus. 

 It is possible that the type specimen is a penultimate molt stage and 

 that ovigers will appear in the adult. If future collections demon- 

 strate that the absence of ovigers is a constant character in the females 

 of this species, it must be removed from the Ammotheidae altogether, 

 or considered an aberrant member of the family. It would then have 

 close affinities with the Phoxichilidiidae, although the possession of 

 well-developed ammotheid palpi would impair the definition of that 

 family. It seems hardly justifiable even to erect a new genus for this 

 form, although its well-developed auxiliary claws separate it from the 

 species referred to Boehmia. The chelifores and palpi, however, as 

 well as the general aspect of the creature, suggest that genus. 



Description. — Trunk oval in outline, lateral processes distinctly 

 separated, trunk segments marked off by well-developed annular divi- 

 sions. Cephalic segment projected forward, with several sharp coni- 

 cal processes at the outer anterior corners over the insertion of the 

 chelifores. There are also conical or thornlike processes on the corners 

 of the lateral processes and the first coxae. The eye tubercle is a tall, 

 pointed, narrow cone, with well-developed eyes about halfway between 

 the base and apex. The first three trunk segments each bear a slender 

 conical process about as tall as the eye tubercle near the posterior 

 margins of the segments, which are actually prolongations of the dorsal 

 portion of the annular swellings which mark off the segments. Pro- 



