Annals of the Transvaal Museum, 
253 
TRANSVAAL CRUSTACEA. 
Part I. 
I ■ . 
On a Collection made by Mr. J . Hewitt and the Rev. Noel Roberts. 
By Paul A. Methuen. 
This collection, which Mr. Hewitt has been kind enough to hand over 
to me to work out, was made during the years 1909 and 1910. Most of 
the specimens were taken in the immediate neighbourhood of Pretoria ; 
some, however, came from further afield, Kimberley and Wakkerstroom 
being among the recorded localities. A few tubes contain specimens 
taken in the Eastern Province. 
After a cursory examination of the collection the following genera 
were recognized or suspected as being represented : — 
Branchiopoda : Streptocephalus, Estheria. 
Cladocera : Daphnia , Ceriodaphnia, Simosa, Moina, Bosmina, Chy~ 
dorus, Leydigia, Macrothrix. 
Copepoda Gymnoplea : Broteas, Diaptomus. 
Copepoda Podoplea : Cyclops , and some Harpactids. 
Ostracoda : Cypris. 
In the vicinity of Pretoria, which lie ; 4471 feet above the sea-level,, 
the habitat of these little creatures is rain puddles, small pools, and vleis, 
all liable to desiccation during the winter months, and dams in which, 
as a rule, one will find water all the year round. The most abundant of 
i he entomostracan fauna appears to be species of Cyclops , Harpactids, 
and a species of Moina. In places Bosmina longirostris G. 0. Muller, 
and Leydigia quadrangularis Ley dig, were taken in numbers. The occurrence 
of Bosmina here is not without interest. The genus is recorded from 
German East Africa by Weltner (7), but there appears to be no record 
from South Africa previous to the present. Its distribution is probably 
a matter of some importance, and has been largely used by Smith (6) to 
illustrate the Antarctica theory which was first advanced by Hooker to 
account for a certain similarity existing between the Cape and South 
American and Australian floras. However, it is hoped in a later part to 
introduce a discussion of this theory, which will be illustrated by a South 
African fresh-water Gammarid which has lately come to light. 
Cladocera. 
Moina belli Gurney (PL, Fig 1), taken in the Orange Free State 
at Kroonstad, by Major E. Eckersley, R.A.M.C., and described by Gurney (2) 
in 1904 : a description and figures of the female only were given. In 
the specimens from Pretoria the setose spines on the telson vary from 
six to eight in number, in addition to the forked spine and minute serrated 
seta springing from its base, both of which are always present ; also the 
anterior margins of the two terminal claws (fig. %), as well as the posterior 
margins, are partly setose. Gurney has figured two minute spines in 
6 
