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Zabadak, thanks for pointing that out. I hadn't noticed the order (I seldom notice such extra details) but now I'm aware of it, my admiration for this puzzle grows even greater.

Thanks, you're right! One of my pairs was actually dis[laced by one square, which I couldn't see for looking. I like this one so much I might go so far as to make a fair copy!

I think I'm finished but can't see the parsing for 26a, 34 and 36. Could anyone help? Also, is the syllable I need to put an oval round in the second thematic item from the top? It's not really 'connecting' the curves.

Ukridge, look a bit further down (vertically) for the syllable.

26: U in a reversal of a word for stuff which also is a type of fat (they're under the same heading in Chambers)

24: Old-fashioned (but common in crosswords!) word for rat as in a nasty fellow, plus one of the usual abbreviations for about

36 One of the logic gates (two letters) + A (one) - traps here as in mouth

26a - word that can mean “to stuff” in reverse around “u”

34 - word for “rat” and word for “on” and all means corps

36 - less sure on this, think first two letters can mean a logic gate then a letter for one and whole thing means traps as in mouths

The syllable is pretty central and should connect the curves in a way to complete the picture. It is a syllable from the singular of the word in the thematic phrase.

Thank you loge and candledave. No wonder I couldn't see the syllable. I had 26a wrong. It all makes sense now.

This was excellent. Some clever clues and difficult but not stupidly so.
Three distinct PDMs for me - the significance of the commonality of the extra words, some thematics words and finally the thematic phrase.
I spent far too long looking for a fourth additional example as well as the completed bottom line before reading the preamble again and realising it was not there.
I have no difficulty with the use of singular thematic elements. The removed letters spell out four of them (pleural) in four separate parts of another thematic item (singular) - as in the thematic phrase.

I agree, a good challenging crossword but perfectly fair. I too spent ages looking for a phantom representation of the thematic phrase before realising that I'd misread the preamble. Thank you, Shark!

I can't quite follow your logic, smithsax - you've conjured the plural by adding together the eight thematic representations and then magically reinforced the singularity of the container by the same process... are you sure?

...the definitions in Chambers don't really support your 4 in 1 idea - they're individually numbered, not quartered.