Amphipoda.
Genus Cyamus, Lamarck.

(Bate's and Westwood's “British Sessile-eyed Crustacea,” vol. ii., p. 80.)

The following is the generic character as given by Bate and Westwood:—

“Head and first segment of the body fused into a pear-shaped mass. Eyes small and vertical. Segments of the pereion with the sides horizontally dilated; the legs attached to the postero-lateral margins; five pairs of strongly cheliform legs, wanting in the third and fourth segments, which are furnished with two pairs of branchial appendages, long and filiform. Pleon rudimental.”

Cyamus ceti, Martens, l.c., p. 85.

Specific description:—“Body depressed, elliptical, segments gaping at the sides (male narrower?). Third and fourth segments of the body with one long branchia on each side; armed at the base with two short appendages; second pair of hands armed beneath with two obtuse teeth, between which is a lunate incision. Length nearly half an inch.”

I received three specimens of this species from Professor Julius von Haast. In answer to my question as to the name of the whale on which they were found, he writes:—“The parasitic Crustacea were found on Euphysetes potsii, which, as it appears now from careful examination of further specimens, is identical with Viagia breviceps of the northern hemisphere.” With regard to its occurrence in European seas, Bate and Westwood say,—“We have no precise details of the locality and notice of capture of this species, beyond the general statement of its being found on the whale in British seas.”

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Of the three specimens which Professor Haast kindly handed over to me, two appear to be males, one 17/30 inch in length of body, the other 16/30.