South African Crustacea (Part XI of S.A. Crustacea, for the Marine Investigations in South Africa)

Abstract

hopes of being able to deal with the accumulated material in a single essay. But it now seems expedient to offer the present contribution as a first instalment of the report. There is some excuse for going slowly. The literature of the subject has become voluminous, and not infrequently the student is confronted with two opposite difficulties , in having to guess what species was intended by an old meagre description, and in having to weigh critically all the minute distinctions of a modern elaborate one. When there are many specimens at his disposal all superficially alike, he has to guard against overlooking important characters that may differentiate some of them. When the specimen is unique, there is the torturing alternative of spoiling it for exhibition in a museum by dissection, or spoiling it for any real use to science by leaving it intact. With the extension of research the task of assigning specific names becomes increasingly hard, as connecting links are discovered between species and species, and the range of variability within an acknowledged species is demonstrated. Of the South African macruran fauna it is probably true that its members have very near relatives in almost every part of the ocean. Six new species are here proposed, and two new genera, Hali-poroides and Macropetasma. Further, the name Pomatoclielidae is substituted for the family previously called Pylochelidae, and for the preoccupied names Sicyonia and Ogyris the new generic names 1