KONGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR. BAND. 22. N:0 7. 39 



The sixth family THAUMATOPSIDiE, C. BOVALLIUS, 1886. 



Diagll. Caput maximum, tumidum. Corpus magnum, tumidum. Oculi grandes, partem superinrem capitis 

 occupantes. Antenna' primi paris recta;, parti anteriori capitis affix*, articulis paucis com- 

 positae. Antennae secundi paris obsolete. Instrumenta oris masticatoria, mandibular palpo 

 carentes. Pedes percei septimi paris non transformati. 



The head is very large, tumid. The body is large, tumid. The eyes are large, occupying 

 the upper part of the head. The first pair of antenna? are straight, fixed at the anterior 

 side of the head, few-jointed. The second pair are obsolete. The mouth-organs are 

 adapted for mastication; the mandibles without palp. The seventh pair of perasopoda 

 are not transformed. 



Syn. 1885. Cystisomidce, R. von WILLEMOES-SUHM! »On some Atlantic Crustacea 



from the Challenger Ex- 

 pedition". Trans, of the 

 Linnean Society. Ser. II, 

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

 » » Th. Stebbing. 1888. "Report on the Amphipoda». 



Voy. of H. M. S. Challenger. 



Zoology. Vol. 29, p. 1317. 



1886. Thaumatopsidce, C. BOVALLIUS. — »Eemarks on the genus Cysteo- 



soma or Thaumatops». Bih. 

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

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



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

 called »the giants among the Hyperids» by the first describer of the genus, F. E. Guerin- 

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

 they must form a family of their own, as already v. Willemoes-Suhm observed in his 

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

 that the family must be placed close to the Tyronida?, Lanceolidce and Mimonectidw. 

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

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

 those in Paraphronimidce, and by this reason Thaumatopsidre have been placed here 

 as the sixth family, next to Paraphronidce. 



The author of the first description of the genus, F. Guerin-Meneville, in 1842 x ) 

 presumed that it ought to be ranged in the family »Hyperines normales" H. Milne-Ed- 

 wards, between the genera Tkemisto and Daira. J. J. Dana in 1852 2 ) mentions it in 

 the second subfamily: Hyperince of the family Hyperidce next to Dairinia. C. Spence- 

 Bate 3 ) (1862) places it in the family Hyperidce, between Dairinia and Themisto. R. Wille- 

 moes-Suhm thought, as mentioned above, that it ought to be established as a new family, 



1 ) Revue zoologique. Annee 1842, p. 215. 



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



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



