33U On South- African TalitiiJee. 



XXlX.—Sonfh-Africa7i Talitridfv. 

 By the Rev. Thomas R. R* Stebbing, M.A., F.R.S. 



On Christmas Eve in lOlG Mr. II. W. Bell-Mailey, of Durban, 

 Nntal, obtained some specimens of Talitridse at Eshowe Bush, 

 ISOO feet above sea-level. OE those which he has kindly 

 forwarded to me mo-^t are females, but one or two males 

 among them, thongh less in size than many of the other sex, 

 will, I think, settle a question which has long been obscure. 

 The species is clearly that which Spence Bate in 1862 named 

 Talorchestia? africnna. Clearly, also, it may now be referred 

 to the genus named Talitriator by Methuen in 1913, and more 

 fully defined by Barnard in 1916. 



Genus Talitriator, Methuen. 



1913. Talitriator, Matthews, P. Z. S. Lond. p. 109. 



1916. Talitriator, Barnard, Ann. S. African Mus. vol. xv. pt. 3, p. 222. 



Related to Tah'trus by feeble minutely chelate second 

 gnathopods in both sexes ; distinguished from it by the first 

 antennae nearly as long as the peduncle of the second ; 

 maxillipeds with small fourth joint to the palp; first gnatho- 

 ]jod shorter than second; fifth side-plates of peraeon more 

 unequally bilobed ; telson longer than broad. 



Of these characters, the last two seem to be scarcely of 

 generic importance. Spence Bate considers the fifth side- 

 plate to be equally bilobed in Talitrus; but neither his own 

 figures nor the facts .support this statement. 



TaUtriator africanus (Bate) . 



1802. Tnlm-chestia ? africana, Bate, Amphipodous Crust. Brit. Mus. 



p. 15, pi. ii. figs. 6, G?', 6^. 

 1906. Talorcliestia ? africana, Stebbing, ' Das Tierreich,' Lief. 21, 



p. 554. 

 1910. Talorchestia ? africana, Stebbing, Ann. S. Afr. Mus. vol. vi. 



pt. 4, p. 459. 



1912. Talitrus ? africanus (Bate), Caiman, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 

 ser. 8, vol. x. p. 135 (1912). 



1913. Talitriator castwoodce, Methuen, P. Z. S. Lond. p. 110, pis. x., xi. 

 1916. Talitriator eastivooda, Barnard, Ann. S. Afr. Mus. vol. xv. pt. 3, 



p. 223 (and Talorchestia .^ africana, p. 215). 



In the male specimen the flagellum of the first antenna3 has 

 ten joints, in the female eleven, in both sexes the third joint 

 of the peduncle is the longest, in the second antennse the 

 flagellum of the male has 22, the larger female 23 joints. 

 The palp of the first maxilla is minute. Of the customary 



