Archet. — The Marine Crayfish of Nexv Zealand. 397 



The common New Zealand crayfish was described hy Hutton (1875, 

 p. 279) under the name of Palimirus edwardsii ; he distinguished it 

 from P. lalandii Mihie-Edwards, previously known from the Cape of 

 Good Hope, " by its much smaller size, the shape of the beak, its having 

 no spine on the penultimate joint of the anterior legs, and in having a second 

 small spine at the distal extremity of the third joint of the last four pairs 

 of legs." Miers (1876, p. 74) stated that he had hitherto believed 

 P. lalandii to be common in New Zealand, but he found that all specimens 

 so named, from New Zealand, in the British Museum agreed with Hutton's 

 P. edwardsii, and so* he was doubtful whether P. lalandii were really to 

 be found in New Zealand. He therefore placed it in the catalogue with 

 the habitat " New Zealand " queried. P. edwardsii was included in the 

 " Catalogue of the Australian Crustacea " by Haswell (1882, p. 171), who 

 added, " Found also at St. Paul and in New Zealand." 



In order to' settle the question of the identity of P. lalandii and 

 P. edwardsii, Parker (1887, p. 150) obtained specimens of the undoubted 

 P. lalandii, which should now be known as Jasus lalandii, from Cape Town, 

 and compared them with Hutton's specimens in the Otago Museum. He 

 saw that the characters reUed upon by Hutton to distinguish the two 

 species were individual variations common to specimens of both Jasus 

 lalandii and J. edwardsii, and therefore could not be used to separate the 

 two species ; but he found in the sculpturing of the segments of the abdomen 

 characters which would distinguish his Cape Town specimens from Hutton's 

 New Zealand forms. At the same time he pointed out that the difierences 

 were slight, and that the examination of specimens from other localities 

 might show that the species would have to be»united. 



In the following year Dr. F. McCoy (1887, preface) stated that the Mel- 

 bourne crayfish, which he referred to Palinurus lalandii, was the same as the 

 crayfish from the Cape of Good Hope, and that it was found at New Zealand 

 and at the Island of St. Paul ; later (1888, p. 222, note) he referred to Parker's 

 paper (1887), remarking that he also had obtained specimens from Cape 

 Town to examine, and had independently come to the same conclusion as 

 Parker as to the characters given by Hutton, and that his observations 

 further showed that the sculpturing of the abdomen could not be used 

 to distinguish the species. McCoy did not formally unite the two species, 

 however. This has since been done by Ortmann (1891, p. 16), who has 

 united J. frontalis (M.-Edw.) from Chile, J. paidensis (Heller) from St. Paul, 

 and J. edwardsii (Hutton) with /. lalandii (M.-Edw.), and the name as under- 

 stood by Ortmann has been quoted by Stebbing (1902, p. 38) ; the New 

 Zealand marine crayfish should therefore now be known as Jasus lalandii 

 (Milne-Edwards). 



In 1880, T. W. Kirk (1880, p. 313) described under the name Palinurus 

 tuniidus a very large crayfish obtained from Waingaroa, in the north of 

 Auckland. He distinguished it from Palinurus hiigelii, described and 

 figured by Heller (1868, p. 96, pi. vii), by its larger size, the beak, supra- 

 orbital and antennal spines being turned upwards, and by the telson being 

 less triangular, and rounded instead of scarped. 



Haswell (1882, p. 172) pointed out that these differences do not exist, 

 except in regard to the telson, where he supposed they were due to the wear- 

 ing, or other mutilation, of this part in Heller's specimen. Haswell's opinion 

 was later confirmed by McCoj^ (1888, p. 222), whose description and plate 

 of Palinurus (Jasus) hugelii from Sydney agreed with T. W. Kirk's 

 description of his Palinurus tumidus. 



