370 Transactions. , 



• 



Kunkel, B. W. 1910. '• The Amphipoda of Bermuda." Trans. Connecticut 



Academy of Arts and Sciences, vol. 16, pp. 1-116. 

 Miers, E. J. 1884. " Crustacea " in Report Voyage H.M.S. " Alert," 



1881-82. London, 1884. 

 Pearse, A. S. 1908. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., vol. 34, pp. 27-32. 

 Stebbing, T. R. R. 1906. " Amphipoda Gamniaridea " in Das Tierreich, 



Lieferung 21. 



1910a. Australian Museum, Memoir 4, pp. 567-658. 



1910b. " Annals South African Museum," vol. 6, pp. 281-593. 



Thomson, G. M. 1882. Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 14, pp. 230-38. 



Walker, A. 0. 1904. " Amphipoda " in Pearl Oyster Fisheries. Suppl. 17, 



pp. 229-300, pi. 1-8. 



Art. XXXV. — Notes on the Occurrence of the Genus Trachipterus in New 



Zealand. 



By H. Hamilton. 



[^Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 22nd September, 1915.] 



The object of this paper is to record the occurrence of five specimens of 

 Trachipterus from the New Zealand coast, to bring together what is already 

 known about their distribution in the Australasian region, and to offer 

 comparisons with Trachipterids found in the Northern Hemisphere. 



Early in 1914 a large specimen of Trachipterus, or deal-fish, was found 

 on the beach at Waikanae, near Wellington, and forwarded to the Dominion 

 Museum by Mr. Watt, a local fisherman. In March, 1915, a smaller speci- 

 men was donated to the Museum by Mr. Foster, of the Wellington Meat 

 Export Company, who obtained it from the Chatham Islands. Both 

 specimens were considerably damaged, as is usually the case, but, being of 

 such rare occurrence, were carefully preserved for future reference. Pro- 

 fessor Benham, Curator of the Otago University Museum, and Mr. R. 

 Speight, Curator of the Canterbury Museum, have kindly placed at my dis- 

 posal three specimens not previously recorded, thereby allowing a survey 

 of all known New Zealand occurrences. I am much indebted to these 

 gentlemen for their co-operation, and also extend my thanks to Mr. E. R. 

 Waite, of the Adelaide Museum, for his sound advice on the arrangement of 

 the subject-matter. 



Previous writers od the Trachipterids have laid stress on the fact that all 

 original observations relating to their appearance and distribution should 

 be recorded to help to solve the problem of their life-history and economy, 

 for only by recording apparently simple facts and examining in detail long 

 series of variable species can a definite conclusion be arrived at. 



The Trachipterids of the Mediterranean, once regarded as four species, 

 have been proved by Emery(2), after examination of twenty-three speci- 

 mens in all stages of growth, to belong to one species only. He showed 

 that the nominal species — viz., T taenia Bloch & Schn., T.filicauda Costa, 



