116 DR. C. CHILTOX OX THE 



Colour light broAA'n, with irregular marblings of a darker brown. 



Size about 4 mm. 



Hdbitat. — Very common all over Canterbury, frequently found on the dead decaying 

 leaves of the New Zealand flax (Fhormium), and always in damp situations. Also from 

 Dunedin, Kenepuru, Greymoixth. 



Remarks. — The separation of the New Zealand species of Trichoniscm presents 

 considerable difficulty, and it is quite possible that some modification may have to be 

 made in the division I am here adopting, though it is the best I can make with the 

 material now at my command. 



The present species was originally confused by me with T. otakensis, and both 

 referred to Philougria rosea, Koch. Furtlaer investigation has shown that I was 

 dealing with two species, and tliat though each presents considerable resemblances to 

 Philougria rosea, Koch, neither can be considered as identical with that species. 



The species now under consideration appears to be distinguished from the next species, 

 T. otakensis, by the smoother surface of the body, the more slender and smoother 

 antennye, the presence of stout sette on the surface, and by the fact that the male and 

 female are aj^proximately of the same general shape. 



The stout setae on the cephalon and mesosome are very characteristic, but they readily 

 fall off in sjiirit specimens, and confusion may thereby be introduced. Some of my 

 specimens are now so free from all trace of these setse that I have sometimes been 

 inclined to think that there must be a form destitute of setie. On the other hand, I have 

 specimens from Kenepuru collected by Mr. MacMahon in which the setse are still 

 present ; they are rather more numerous and shorter than in Canterbury specimens, 

 and the surface is more uneven and tuberculated ; it is possible that these specimens 

 will require a separate sjjecies to be established for their reception, but in the meantime 

 I prefer to regard tliem merely as a variety of T. j)hor)uiaiius. 



The mouth-parts show such a close general resemblance to those of other species of 

 the genus, such as T. rosens, that I have not given figures of them. The mandibles and 

 first and second maxillse present the usual characters ; in the maxillipedes the articulation 

 between the coxa and basos is oblique from the external to the internal face like that 

 already described in Ligixi iiovce-zealandice ; the masticatory lobe into which the basos is 

 prolonged is shorter than the palp, and bears at the end a sepai'ate conical portion, 

 thickly covered with fine seta? arranged radially and produced distally into the short 

 terminal lash ; in these points this species appears to agree closely with Trichoniscus 

 Leydigii as figured and described by Max Weber *. 



The seven pairs of legs present no feature of special importance, and I have not 

 observed that any of them are specially modified in the male. The dactylar seta is 

 long and extends fully to the end of the dactylus ; at about the middle of its length 

 it divides into two branches, the outer one the thicker, l)otli further subdividina: into 

 numerous very fine hairs. 



In the female the first pleopod is very like that of T. ptisillus figured by Sars, but the 



* L. c. p. (51(3, pi. xxviii. fig. 18. 



