(Krauss, 1843)
Diagnosis:
Rostrum ending in three teeth; the lateral teeth are placed at the end of a ridge that is separated from the central part of the dorsal surface of the rostrum by a deep groove. On the central part itself a very shallow median groove is present. There are no ventral teeth on the rostrum. The antero-lateral border of the carapace with a single spine behind the eye. First pereiopods subchelate. Dactylus of adult male with a longitudinal groove on either lateral surface, and without a tooth on the cutting edge. Palm with two dorsal denticulate carinae. Merus without an anterodorsal spine. Coxae of first three pereiopods without spines.
Type:
Type locality of Gebia major capensis: "Tafelbai" ( = Table Bay, Cape Province, South Africa). Type material in Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde, Stuttgart, Germany, now lost; neotype locality: "Knysna, South Africa"; neotype male in ZMH, no. 29852.
Type locality of Gebia africana: "Port Elisabeth" (= Port Elizabeth, Cape Province, South Africa). Holotype in MZS, preserved dry, condition very poor.
Geographical Distribution:
Southern Africa from Olifants River estuary (Atlantic coast of Cape Province, South Africa) to Delagoa Bay ( = Bay of Lourenço Marques, Mozambique).
Habitat and Biology:
"Burrows in the sandy mud of estuaries from mid-tide to LWS [ = Low water spring tide]. A detritus feeder" (Day, 1969: 108)
Size:
Total body length 1.5 to 1.6 cm, ovigerous females 2.7 to 6.5 cm.
Interest to Fisheries:
In South Africa the species is "used extensively as bait" (Day, 1969: 108), but there are restrictions to its collecting, as according to the law each person may collect "not more than fifty per day and the prawns may not be disturbed or removed by means of a shovel, fork or spade" (Tietz and Robinson, 1974: 8).