487 



AUSTRALIAN FRESHWATER POLYZOA. Part i. 



By E. J. GoDDARD, B.A., B.Sc, Linnean Macleay Fellow of 

 THE Society in Zoology. 



(Plate xlvii.) 



The present paper deals with an account of the known fresh- 

 water Polyzoa of Australasia, and a description of a new species 

 of Fredericella. 



Practicallj^ nothing has been attempted in connection with this 

 portion of our freshwater fauna since the work of Macgillivray, 

 Whitelegge, and Hamilton, which was done at least twenty years 

 ago. 



An examination of Whitelegge's "Invertebrate Fauna of Port 

 Jackson and Neighbourhood " shows that among the seven 

 members of the Phylactolceynata which he collected, there was 

 no species which he could then refer to known forms except 

 Plumatella Aplinii and Lophopus Lendenfeldi^ both of which 

 were confined to Australia. Since then we have found the 

 common European species, Plumatella repens, in abundance in 

 Queensland, New South Wales, and South Australia; also in New 

 Zealand; and Paludicella ehrenhergii in New Zealand. 



Whitelegge records a species of Fredericella which he remarks 

 on as being closely allied to F. sidta7ia, but differing from it in 

 the shape of the statoblasts, which are " nearly round and not 

 bean-shaped." Beyond this record there is no published mention 

 of Fredericella from Australia, except in the "Cambridge Natural 

 History," this latter mention being, no doubt, due to Whitelegge's 

 record. This species has been found in abundance since in New 

 South Wales, especially in connection with our water-supply, 



