64 Transactions. 



Art. XIII. — Note on the Occurrence of Metoponorthus prui- 

 nosus, Brandt, in New Zealand. 



By Charles Chilton, M.A., D.Sc, F.L.S., Professor of 

 Biology, Canterbury College. 



[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 7th June, 1905.] 



In the list of Crustacea in the British Museum published 

 in 1847, a species, Porcellio zealandicus, is named but not 

 described (p. 99). It remained undescribed till 1876, when 

 Miers, in preparing a catalogue of the New Zealand Crustacea, 

 examined all the New Zealand Crustacea in the collections of 

 the British Museum and described those he considered new. 

 His description of Porcellio zealandicus appeared first in the 

 " Annals and Magazine of Natural History " (ser. 4), xvii, 

 p. 225, and was also given in the " Catalogue of New Zealand 

 Crustacea," and was there illustrated by two figures. 



In the "Crustacea Isopoda Terrestria," published in 1885, 

 Budde-Lund put down the species as a doubtful synonym 

 of Metoponorthus pruinosus, Brandt. Up to that time, and for 

 long afterwards, no local collector had recognised the species ; 

 and in my " Terrestrial Isopoda of New Zealand " :;: I could 

 only add to the account given above that I had examined the 

 type specimen in the British Museum, and that it was un- 

 doubtedly a Metoponorthus, and apparently closely resembled 

 M. pruinosus, though the condition of the specimen was not 

 sufficiently good to allow one to be quite sure on this point. I 

 also pointed out that, while it would not be extraordinary if 

 this cosmopolitan species were found in New Zealand, still it 

 was not known to local collectors up to that time ; though, as 

 the British Museum specimen must have been obtained before 

 1847,1 we might have imagined that the species, if really 

 existing in New Zealand at that time, would have since 

 become abundant. 



' In 1901 I recognised numerous specimens of Metoponorthus 

 pirumosus among Isopoda sent from Norfolk Island, but none 

 from New Zeaiand till March. 1905, when among some 

 Crustacea sent me by Mr. Hutchinson from the shores of 

 a tidal lagoon in Hawke's Bay I found numerous specimens of 

 this species. I have compared them with the Norfolk Island 

 specimens, and also with specimens gathered in England, and 

 find that they are all specifically identical. 



* Trans. Linn. Boc, 2nd >ev., Zo>l., viii, p. 141. 



t Since this was written Dr. T. W. Caiman, of the British Museum, 

 informs me that it is not quite correci. The specimens recorded by White 

 in 1347 were from "Van Diemen's Land"; that from New Zealand, 

 described by Miers, was received by the Museum in 1854. 



