264 DB. C. CHILTON ON THE SUBTEEEANEAN 



Zealand subterranean forms do not, I am afraid, help much toward a solution. The 

 \\ater in which they are found is very clear and pure, with very little sediment, and in 

 almost all cases is used for drinking without being filtered. Some years ago Mr. George 

 Gray, of the School of Agriculture, Lincoln, was kind enough to analyse some of the 

 water from the Eyreton pump for me, and he found that the amount of organic matter 

 in it Avas considerably below that allowed for a healthy drinking-water. Mr. Mayne, 

 speaking of the Ashburton water, informs me that " it stands the permanganate of potash 

 test." There appear to be very few Infusoria or Rotifera in it ; certainly it could not 

 be said to contain " numerous animalcules," as stated by Hogan of the water at 

 Ringwood. 



The intestinal canal of the various species is frequently full of a dark blackish or 

 brownish material, but though I have frequently examined this I have not found any- 

 thing in it that I could recognize except grains of sand and earth. 



I have frequently kept specimens of some of the species in small freshwater aquaria, 

 and in this have seen them apparently eating small filamentous algae. In April, 1890, 

 I put three specimens of Crurecjens fontanms into a small bottle containing water taken 

 from the Brighton Creek, near the sea ; the water in this creek is often brackish, and 

 has Rnppia mm^itima &c. growing in it, but at the time when I filled my bottle the 

 water was quite fresh to the taste. In the bottle I had a small piece of Ruppia maritima 

 growing, also various filamentous algae, and no doubt plenty of Infusoria &c. In this 

 the three specimens of Cruregens lived till the beginning of June, when one was lost 

 sight of, a second one died at the beginning of August, and the third about the end of 

 that month, having thus lived for about five months. During this time I frequently 

 saw them seize pieces of the algse with their gnathopoda, but I could never make quite 

 certain whether they ate them or not. 



The mouth of Cruregens, like that of the other Antburidae, appears to be suctorial, but I 

 can form no idea as to what the tinderground Cruregens sucks, unless it merely sucks up a 

 great quantity of water, retaining any organic materials that it may contain ; the maxillae 

 form lancet-organs, but I have never seen the animals using them for piercing the stems 

 of the Rnppia maritima or for any similar purpose. So far as I am aware, we are equally 

 ignorant of the use that the marine Antburidae make of their suctorial apparatus : from 

 the structure of their mouths we should almost expect them to suck nutritive fluids from 

 the bodies of other animals ; but I have never heard of them doing this, and if they did 

 we might reasonably expect some species at least to have permanently adopted a parasitic 

 manner of life ; the only parasitic species, however, known to me is Eisothistos vermi- 

 fonnis, Haswell [54, p. 1], which lives in the tubes of Serpulae ( Vermilia). Haswell says 

 nothing about the structure of its mouth, and it is uncertain whether it actually derives 

 its nourishment from the Vetvnilia or not. The other species are usually taken creeping 

 freely on the surface of various sea-weeds, but whether they live upon these sea-weed& 

 or not does not appear to be known. 



Summing up, we are forced to admit that very little is as yet known as to the source 

 of the food-supply of the subterranean Crustacea, and further observations on this point 

 are very desirable. It must also be remembered that these animals may live for a long 



