658 ox CEUSTACEA BROUGHT BY DE ^YILLEY FROM THE SOUTH SEAS. 



1858. Macrocephalus, Bate, Ann. Nat. Hist., Ser. 3, vol. 1, p. 3(31. 



1862. Rhabdosoma, Bate, Catal. Brit. Mus. Amphipoda, p. 344. 



1887. Rhabdonectes, Bovallius, Bihang Yet.-Ak. Handlingar, vol. 11, No. 16, p. 39. 



1888. Rhabdosoma, Stebbing, Challengei- Reports, vol. 29, Amphipoda, p. 1606. 

 1890. Xiphocephalus, Bovallius, The Oxycephalids, R. Soc. Sci. Upsala, pp. 3, 116, etc. 

 1895. Rhabdosoma, Stebbing, Trans. Zool. Soc. London, vol. 13, pt. 10, p. 367. 

 1900. Rhabdosoma, Chevreux, Amphipodes de THirondelle, Res. Sci. Prince de Monaco, 



fasc. 16, p. 163. 



Several other references, with full discussion of the genus and its name, will be 

 found in the writings above cited under the dates 1888, 1890, and 1895. 



Rhabdosoma whitei, Bate. 



1862. Rhabdosoma Whitei, Bate, Catal. Brit. Mus. Amjihipoda, p. 345, pi. 54, fig. 7. 



1878. Rhabdosoma Whitei, Streets, Pr. Ac. Sci. Philad., p. 2S7, fig. 6. 



1887. Rhabdosoma armatum (part), Claus, Die Platysceliden, p. 74, pi. 25, tig. 1 — 6, 



pi. 26, fig. 5. 



1887. Rhabdosoma Whitei, Bovallius, Bihang. Yet.-Ak. Handlingar, vol. 11, No. 16, 

 p. 39. 



1S87. Rhabdosoma investigatoris, Giles, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, vol. 56, pt. 2, 

 p. 219, pi. 4. 



1888. Rhabdosoma armatum, Stebbing, Challenger Reports, vol. 29, Amphipoda, 

 p. 1607, fig. in text of Rhabdosoma Whitei, v. Willemoes Suhm. 



1890. Xiphocephalus Whitei, Bovallius, The Oxycephalids, R. Soc. Sci. Upsala, 

 p. 125, pi. 7, fig. 1 — 20, and numerous figures in the text. 



1895. Rhabdosoma Whitei, Stebbing, Trans. Zool. Soc. London, vol. 13, pt. 10, p. 368. 



Of this remarkable form two specimens, a male and a female, are included in 

 Dr Willey's collection. They agree well with the elaborate details supplied by 

 Dr Bovallius, except that the lower angle of the seventh segment of the peraeon is 

 less acute than in the specimens he describes. The long fourth joint of the first, 

 second, and third peraeopods is inflated and somewhat fusiform in the female, but 

 that joint in the fourth peraeopods shows no inflation. Bovallius (p. 42, 1890) observes 

 that m the females of the three species of this genus which he has examined the 

 fourth and fifth joints of the first four pairs of peraeopods ' are sometimes inflated, 

 and almost egg-shaped, owing to a strongly developed glandular mass surrounding 

 the axis of the joint for the whole of its length.' But he supposes the inflation 

 to be periodical, and to have some connexion with the fixation of the eggs on the 

 underside of the body, as he has seen full-grown females without the inflation, but 

 those with eggs or young ones always had it. So in the present specimen eggs 

 can be seen in process of development within the body. In the male specimen, the 

 nerve-apparatus of the eyes being broken, the prolonged ends of the pair of liver-tubes 

 with their large conspicuous cell.-J wear a striking appearance within the ' neck ' of the 

 head, as shown, though not very forcibly, in pi. 25, fig. 1, of Claus's Platysceliden. 



Length of female, 55 mm., of male (with rostrum imperfect), 35 mm. 



Habitat. Blanche Bay, New Britain. 



