266 Transactions. — Zoology. 



lais pubescens, Dana. 



1852. JcBi-a puhescens, Dana, United States Exploring Expe- 

 dition, Crustacea, vol. ii., p. 744, pi. xlix., figs. 9a-9d. 



1883. Jcsra novce-zealanclice, Chilton, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 

 XV., p. 189. 



1886. Java neo-zelanica, Thomson and Chilton, Trans. N.Z. 

 Inst., vol. xviii., p. 157. 



1886. lais j)uhescens, Bovallius, " Notes on the Family Asel- 

 lidae," Bihang till K. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handlingar, 

 band xi., No. 15, p. 50. 



1886. Jcera puhescens, Beddard, " Eeport on the ' Challenger ' 

 Isopoda," part ii., p. 19, pi. ii., figs. 6-10. 



1888. lais neo-zelanica, Thomson, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxi., 

 p. 265. 



I have little doubt that my Jcera novce- Zealand ice is the 

 same as Jcera puhescens, Dana. When I described it I was not 

 acquainted with Dana's species, but subsequently I saw his 

 figure in the copy of his atlas in the library of the Canterburv 

 Museum ; and, as there is no copy of the text in that library, 

 Mr. Alexander Morton, of the Tasmanian Museum, Hobart, 

 was good enough to copy out the description for me from the 

 copy in the library of the Eoyal Society of Tasmania. From 

 these I judged that the two species would most likely have to 

 be united, and this conclusion was confirmed by the fuller 

 description given by Beddard in the ' ' Eeport of the ' Chal- 

 lenger ' Isopoda." My specimens agree very closely with 

 Beddard's description, but his figure does not appear altogether 

 satisfactory, and in some points does not correspond with his 

 description. Thus, there appears no warrant for the notches 

 shown on the sides of the head, and apparently also on the 

 bases of the antennae ; the first segment of the pereion is not 

 shown longer than the succeeding, as it is described, and as it 

 really is ; and the lateral margins of the segments do not show 

 the division into lobes mentioned, nor the arrangement of 

 setae thereon as described. 



Dana's specimens of Jcera imhescens were taken in a semi- 

 parasitic condition on Spliceroina lanccolatuvi at Patagonia; and 

 specimens, which Beddard identifies with Dana's species, were 

 obtained during the " Challenger " Expedition at Kerguelen 

 Island in a similar condition on a SphaBromid, which Beddard 

 identifies as Sphcerovia gigas, a species which is, he says, 

 hardly distinguishable from Splioiroma lanceolatum. 



My original specimen of Jcera novce-zealandia; was not 

 taken directly from a Sphaeromid, but was found in a bottle 

 with other Crustacea from Lyttelton Harbour, though I do not 

 know the exact circumstances of its capture. Since then I 

 have taken specimens of the same species at Akaroa, creeping 



