Art. III. — Description of a New Genus of Terrestrial 

 Isopoda, allied to the Genus Phreatoicus. 



(Plates III. and IV.) 



By Prof. Baldwin Spencer, M.A., and T. S. Hall, M.A. 



[Read 7th May, 1896.] 



For the specimens upon which our work is based we are 

 indebted to Mr. W. H. F. Hill, by whom they were obtained 

 burrowing in earth on the hills overlooking the Gellibrand River, 

 about twenty miles south of Colac in Victoria. The country is 

 covered with dense forest, principally of Eucalyptus, and owing 

 to its rugged nature has been but little explored zoologically. 



In 1882 Dr. Charles Chilton* described a new genus of subter- 

 ranean Isopoda to which he gave the name of Phreatoicus, 

 obtained from wells in New Zealand; in 1891 f he described 

 another species of the same genus secured in water-holes on the 

 summit of Mount Kosciusko, close to the boundary line between 

 New South Wales and Victoria, and in 189-4, in an important 

 paper on "The Subterranean Crustacea of New Zealand,"; he 

 gave further particulars with regard to the New Zealand species 

 of the genus. 



The genus now described is evidently closely related to though 

 distinct from Phreatoicus, and we therefore propose the name of 

 Phreatoicopsis for it. To facilitate comparison we have adhered 

 as closely as possible to the method of description and nomen- 

 clature of Dr. Chilton. 



Phreatoicopsis, n.g. 



Body long, subcylindrical, laterally compressed. Upper antennae 

 short, lower long, with flagellum. Mandible with an appendage. 

 First pair of legs subchelate, others simple. The legs are divided 

 into an anterior series of four and a posterior series of three. 



v Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xv., p. S9. ■ 



t Records Aust. JIus., Sydney, vol. i., p. 140. 



% Trans. Linn. Soc. London, May, lv.>4. 



