TEERESTEIAL ISOPODA OF NEW ZEALAND. 141 



Opercular plates of the two anterior pairs of [)leopoda with air-cavities, more rarely 

 also those of third or of all pairs. Copulative organs of male nearly as in Porcellio. 

 Uropoda rather produced, and of a similar structur(^ to that in Porcellio." 



1. ? Metoponorthus truinosus, Brandt. 



Porcellio pruinosus, Brandt, Consp. nioiiogr. Crust. Isop. turrcstr. p. 19, fig. 21. 



Porcellio zealandicus. White, List. Crust. Brit. Mas. p. 9'.), 181-7 {sine dexcrip.) ; Miers, Cat. N. Z. Crust. 



p. 100 (1876). 

 Metoponorthus pruinosu.t. Buddc-Luml, Isopoda Terrestria, p. 109 (18S5). 

 Porcellio neo-zelanicus, Thomas & Chilton, Traus. N. Z. Inst, xviii. p. 158 (1886). 

 Metoponorthus pruinosus, Sars, Crustacea of Norway, ii. p. 181 (1899). 



Budde-Lund gives Pot-cellio zealandicus. White, as a douhtful synonym of Metopo 

 northus pruinosus, Brandt. I have seen the type specimen in the British Museum ; it 

 is dried and not very well pi'eserved, but is undoubtedly a Metoponorthus, and apparently 

 very closely resembles M. jjruinosus. It w^ould certainly not be extraordinary if this 

 cosmopolitan species were found in New Zealand, but I have never met with it, though. 

 AVhite's specimen, if really from New Zealand, must have been collected there before 

 1847, and we might naturally have expected that the species would have become 

 abundant since then. 



To make the account of this species complete, I quote here the description given of it 

 by Miers : — 



"Elongate oblong, finely granulous, the granules seriate on the posterior margin of 

 each segment. Head small, ti-ansversely oblong, with tlie latero-anterior angles not 

 prominent. Segments of the thorax (the last excepted) with the posterior and infero- 

 lateral margins straight, the infero-posterior angles obtuse ; last segment of thorax broad, 

 with the posterior margin concave, the infero-lateral margin straight, the infero-posterior 

 angle acute. Segments of the abdomen consideralily narrower than those of the thorax, 

 short ; terminal segment equilaterally triangular, slightly concave above, sides straight. 

 Caudal appendages with the base shorter than the terminal segment, the longer 

 (exserted) ranms narrow, acute, projecting beyond the termii^.al segment to a distance 

 equal to its own length. External antenufe very long and hairy — length nearly one- 

 third inch. New Zealand (Coll. Brit. Mus.)." 



Eamily VI. ABMADILLIID.^. 



In this family the body is generally convex, and the animals capable of rolling up 

 into a ball ; the metasome is not abruptly narrower than the mesosome. There are air- 

 cavities in two or more of the outer branches of the pleopoda, and the uropoda are 

 usually short and not produced beyond the terminal segment. In other respects the 

 family resembles the Oniscida, with which it is so connected by some intermediate 

 genera that, as Sars has poiuted out, it is rather difficult to get points of difference 

 that will apply in all cases. 



The family contains many genera, several of which have been established during 



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