ON A NEW ABIPHIPODAN GENUS AND SPECIES. 331 



A New Amphipodan Gemis and Species (Family Dexaiiiinidfe) from New 

 Zealand. By Charles Chilton, M.A., D.Sc, LL.D., M.B., C.M., 

 F.L.S., Professor of Biology, Canterbury College, New Zealand. 



(Plates 26 & 27.) 



[Read 2nd April, 1914.] . 



The Amphipod described in this paper was taken on seaweed in rock-pools 

 at Oamaru, on the East Coast of Otago, New Zealand, in June 1908, and 

 from its bright red colour and conspicuous appearance was at once seen to 

 be different from any of the Amphipoda so far described from New Zealand. 

 On examination, it proves to agree with the characters of the family 

 Dexaminida3 as given by the Rev. T. R. R. Stebbing in ' Das Tierreich: 

 Amphipoda,' except in the following points : — 



(1) The second joint of the peduncle of the upper antenna is not specially 



long. 



(2) The inner lobe of the second maxilla is sparsely fringed with setse 



along the greater part of its inner margin as well as at the extremity. 



Probably neither of these points is of sufficient importance to be included 

 in the diagnosis of the family. The second joint of the peduncle of the upper 

 antenna varies considerably in length in different specimens of the species 

 Paradexamine pacifica (Gr. M. Thomson) (see Chilton, 1912, p. 502) • in 

 P.fiindeTsi (Stebbing) (1910, p. 603) it is slightly shorter than the first 

 segment, and should perhaps not therefore be called long, and similarly in 

 Guernea coal'da (Norman) it is shorter than the first which is described as 

 "not much longer than the second" (Stebbing, 1906, p. 522). The second 

 character also does not hold for all species of the family. Chevreux (1913 

 p. 181) has pointed out that in the species named by him Paradeccamme 

 fissicauda the inner lobe of the second maxilla has its inner margin frinoed 

 with seta3 ; I found this also to be the case with specimens from the South 

 Orkneys, collected by the "Scotia" Expedition, which I (1912, p. 502) 

 referred to P. pacifica (G. M. Thomson), a species from which I consider 

 P. fissicauda to be hardly distinct ; in New Zealand specimens of P. pacifica, 

 however, the setae are almost confined to the extremity. In Polycheria 

 antarctica (Stebbing) there are a few setse on the inner margin of the inner 

 plate (Stebbing, 1906, p. 520). 



I have found it impossible to refer the species described below to any of 

 the existing genera of the Dexaminidse. According to the characters oiven in 

 the " Synopsis of Genera" by Stebbing (1906, p. 514), it would have to come 



