124 Transactions. 



Art. XX. — A Species of Daphnia new to New Zealand. 

 By Gilbert Archey, B.A. 



[Bead before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 4th June, 1913.] 



Hitherto only three species of Daphnidae have been recorded from New- 

 Zealand. In 1878 Mr. G. M. Thomson* described a form which he named 

 Daphnia obtusata, and which he said occurred " in great abundance in 

 still water in neighbourhood of Dunedin from October to May." This has 

 since been obtained in other parts of New Zealand, and is now placed under 

 Simocephalus, to which genus Sars,f who had raised it from dried mud 

 afterwards sent to him, pointed out it belonged. ThomsonJ again, in 



1883, described a new species of Daph- 

 nia under the name of D. similis. 

 This form was obtained from a pool in 

 Eyreton, North Canterbury. In 1894 

 dried mud from the same pool was for- 

 warded to Sars, who obtained from it 

 several kinds of Entomostraca, among 

 which was the form D. similis of Thom- 

 son. Sars (loc. cit.) pointed out that 

 the specific name similis had already 

 been given by Professor Claus to another 

 Fig. 1. — -Daphnia carinata King : species of Daphnia; he therefore re- 



abdominal region ; from the right side. name d the New Zealand species, after 

 its discoverer, D. thomsoni. In his account he mentions the interesting 

 fact that he had also raised the same species from mud collected at Knysna, 

 Cape of Good Hope. He also describes a species of Ceriodaphina (C. sub- 

 laevis) from the same mud that yielded Simocephalus obtusata and Daphnia 

 thomsoni. 



At the end of November, 1899, the late Mr. G. R. Marriner obtained 

 a number of specimens of a Daphnia from a pool of water in a shingle-pit 

 at Middleton, near Christchurch. These have not hitherto been fully ex- 

 amined, but comparing them with similar specimens collected recently 

 by Mr. C. Barham Morris, of Oamaru, they appear to belong to D. carinata 

 King,§ a form originally described in 1853 from specimens obtained from 

 ponds and swamps around Sydney. Several varieties of the species were 

 recorded by King. The forms collected in New Zealand appear closely 

 to resemble the variety cephalata, of which King gives a sketch, but which 

 he does not describe in the text. 



* Thomson, G. M. : " On the New Zealand Entomostraca.'" Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 11, 

 p. 261, pi. xi, fig. E, 2 a-e. 



t Sars, G. 0. : " Contributions to the Knowledge of the Fresh-water Entomostraca 

 of New Zealand, as shown by Artificial Hatching from Dried Mud." Videnskabs- 

 Selskabets, Skrifter i, Mathem-naturv. Klasse, 1894, No. 5. 



J Thomson, G. M. : " On a New Species of Daphnia.'" Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 16, 

 p. 240, pi. 13, figs. 6-9. 



§ King, Rev. R. L. : " On some Species of Daphnidae found in New South Wales." 

 Proc. Roy. Soc. Tasmania, vol. 2, part 2, January, 1853, pp. 242-53, pi. 1. And " On 

 Some Australian Entomostraca — in Continuation," pp. 253-55, pi. vi, A, B. 



