KONOL. SV. VET. .\KAI)KMIENS HANDMNli AR. HAND. 22. N:0 7. 39 



The sixth i-umly THAUMÅTOPSID^., C. P.OVALLIUS, 1S8G. 



Diagn. Caput niaxinuiin, tuniidum. Corpn.s inagnuni, tuinidum. (>r(«fo; grandes, partem superiorem capitis 

 occupantes. Aiiteiiwi' primi paris rectsx?, parti anteriori capitis affixa», articulis paiicis com- 

 positae. Anteuua? secnindi paris obsoletse. Instrunienta oria masticatoria, inandiljula; palpo 

 carentes. Pedtts perici septimi paris mm transformati. 



Tiie head is verv large, tuinid. The hodi/ is large, tumid. The fii/fs are large, ocoupying 

 the iipper part of the head. The first pair of antennce are straight, fixed at the anterior 

 side of the head, few-joiuted. The second pair are obsolete. The mouth-orffcins are 

 adapted for mastication; tlie mandibles without palp. The seventh pair of perwopoda 

 are not transformed. 



Syu. 1885. Cystisomkhr, R. von WILLEMOES-SUHM. — »Oii sorae Atlantic Crustacea 



from the Challenger Ex- 

 pedition». Träns, of the 

 Linnean Society. Ser. II, 

 Zoology, vol. 1, part 1, p. 2. 

 » » Th. ^Stebbing. 1S88. "Report on the Amphipoda». 



Voy. of H. M. S. Challenger. 



Zoology. Vol. 29, p. 1317. 



1886. Thaninatopsidw, C. BOVALLIUS. — »Remarks on the genus Cysteo- 



soma or Thaumatops». Bih. 

 t. K. Sv. Vet. Ak. Handl. 

 Bd. 11. N:o 9, p. 4. 



The strange-looking, colcssal Hyperids, belonging to the genus Thaumatops, were 

 called »the giants araong the Hyperids» by the fir.st describei* of the genus, F. E. Guérin- 

 Méneville. They differ in so very important points from the other known genera, that 

 they must form a family of their own, as ah'eady v. Willemoés-Suhm observed in his 

 above cited paper on Challenger-crustacea. The first pair of antenna? show by their foi'm, 

 that the family must be placed close to the Tyronidce, Lanceolidce and Mimonectidce, 

 The general habitus of Thaumatops comes perhaps nearest to Phrosina and Eiqjrimno, 

 but systematically it is widely distant from them. The mouth-organs resemble most 

 those in Parajjhronijnidce, aiid by this reason Thaumatopsida? have been placed here 

 as the sixth family, next to Parcvp/ironidce. 



The author of the first description of the genus, F. Guérin-Méneville, in 1842 ^) 

 presumed that it ought to be ranged in the family »Hypérines nomxiales» H. Milne-Ed- 

 WARDS, between the genera Tkemisto and Daira. J. J. Dana in 1852 ') mentions it in 

 the second subfamily: Hyijerince of the family Hyperidoe next to Dairinia. C. Spence- 

 Bate^) (1862) places it in the famih' Hyperidce, between Dairinia and Themisto. R. Wille- 

 MOÉs-SuHM thought, as mentioned above, that it ought to be established as a new family, 



') Revue zoologique. Année 1842, p. 215. 



-) U. S. Expl. Exp. Crustacea, vol. 2, p. 1442. 



^) Catal. Amph. Crust. Brit. Museum, p. 311. 



