'98 Transactions. — Zoology. 



locality from which one of the species was obtained, and it is 

 with a view to rectifying this error, and at the same time ex- 

 tending our knowledge of the distribution and calling the 

 attention of New Zealand zoologists to the subject, that the 

 present note is written. 



Lord Avebury distinguished three species in the collec- 

 tion, which he named Anoura tasmanice, Anoura dendyi, and 

 Anoura spinosa. Each of these is said to come from Tas- 

 mania in the specific diagnosis, but the introductory paragraph 

 mentions New Zealand and Tasmania. I believe the first two 

 -are really Tasmanian and the last New Zealand. 



Anoura spinosa, indeed, which may be readily recognised 

 from the description and figures, appears to be very widely 

 distributed in New Zealand, but I have no recollection of 

 seeing it in Tasmania. Last summer I obtained about a 

 dozen specimens near Lake Te Anau and one at Milford 

 Sound, and in July last Professor Wall obtained a specimen 

 near Auckland. For the information of local collectors, I 

 may mention that it is a small, soft-bodied, wingless insect, 

 somewhat oval in shape, and about 4 in. long, of a bluish-grey 

 colour, with numerous short yellow spines on the back and a 

 pair of short antennae in front.* On the lower surface are 

 three pairs of short legs, followed by a pair of fleshy-looking 

 sucker-like organs. It lives in rotten wood, and, though widely 

 distributed, is by no means abundant. It is of interest as an 

 unusually large representative of a group of insects of an 

 extremely primitive character, the study of which may throw 

 much light upon the ancestral history of insects in general. 



For further information on this group the reader is referred 

 to Sir John Lubbock's well-known monograph on the Collem- 

 bola and Thysanura, published by the Ray Society. The 

 investigation of these animals in New Zealand can hardly 

 fail to yield valuable results. 



* In all the specimens which I now have in my possession the spines 

 on the antenDse are obsolete, though indications of them may sometimes 

 be seen. 



