STANDARD FORM NO. 64 
COPY 
2oiaU3 
• UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT 
TO/ 
FROM 
y Dr. Schmitt 
/■ 
: P’eimer A, Chace, 
DATE: Nov«aber 21, 19$$ 
***•" ■ 
) 
tsuBjEc|_:^Breciin Afrlom Expedition • invertebrate eoUTOtions. 
^ Perhaps the appendeKi list of staiBips and crabs will surprise youi 
a little. The fact that you obtained more than 2000 specimens of 17 \ 
deoapods-half of them new to oar collections » proves that hi^ water \ 
and a tight schedule can be overcome to some extent. Althoy^ i know I 
that you were disappointed iu>t to get more crabs, it is mteworthy 1 
that the 121* speciracma you brought back represent no loss than 12 or / 
13 species of potamoisids. The more than 1000 specimens obtJ^md^y-^ 
the Lang-Chapln American Museum Congo Expedition of 
only 11 species, and Balsa in his 1936 survey of the potsraonids of the 
Belgian Ctongo listed only 22 species kmwa from the entire area. 
Your battir^ average is quite remarkable. Of real iBiportance is the 
fact that all of the species added to our collections are represented 
by male specimmiis which, as you know, are indispensable to any study 
of the relationships of this poorly known fauna. 
Of toe shidj^a, the moat important lot is the nice aeries of 
Llmnocaridina similis. We already had 150 specimens of the supposedly 
coiimtoner Xr Tanganyikae, so it is good that you unknowingly concentrated 
on one of "“the oilier species of this unique endemic genus. Until Miss 
Both-Woltereck's repart in 19i*2, 1. similis was thought to be very 
rare. Many of her specimens also came from Uvira, so you apparently 
chose the right locality to make yo-or Tanganyika sts^ aost profitable. 
Oxie of the most desirable lots of crabs is the series of lAiat I 
have called Platythelphusa denticjilata. 'ftiis species was known 
previously only from the holotype, tlie single specimen found by Capart 
in the vast collection made at nearly 1*00 stations in bake Tanganyika 
by the Mission hydrobiologique beige in 19lO«i|.7» Your specimens do 
not agree exactly with Capart ‘s description but they probably fall with- 
in the limits of variation of his species. If not, they represaat an 
undescribed species. 'The holotype casiie frtXTi Edith Bay at about the 
middle of the eastern shore of the Lx&e and over 200 lailea from Uvira, 
but there sems to be little relationship between geograpl^ and specia- 
tion in Tanganyika crustaceans. 
The two species of the subgenus Qeotoelphuaa that you received 
from Mr, Hend.rickx at Mulungu are probable' new , but you know how 
difficult it is without intensive stucty of adequate material from nary 
localities to determine whether a pai’ticular series of specin^s is 
ondescribed or merely an extreme variant of a species known, from arxother 
area. jRiere is no doubt that two species of the subgenua are repre- 
sented in this lot. 
