132 Transactions. 



p. 14) that this crab is found at various places on the Atlantic coast of the 

 northern United States and ofE the coast of Pernambuco (Brazil) ; that in 

 Europe it extends in the North Sea almost up to Arctic limits, and is 

 common in all parts of the Mediterranean, being also found in the Black 

 Sea and the Red Sea ; and that it is also an Indian species, though evidently 

 very rare. He adds that it " has been reported from the Hawaiian Islands, 

 from the Bay of Panama, and — though there is doubt about this locahty — 

 from Australia." He proceeds to point out that the distribution is not 

 altogether without parallel among other marine forms, and is therefore nol 

 so singular as has been supposed. In 1901 Messrs. Fulton and Grant (1901. 

 p. 56) pointed out that this crab does undoubtedly occur in Australia in the 

 waters of Port Phillip, where it is now exceedingly abundant, and the}- 

 state that there seems little doubt that it has been introduced there by the 

 shipping. In their paper they quote Consul Gunnerson as suggesting that it 

 may have found its way from Europe to Australia through the medium of 

 the old lumber-ships attracted thither in the early " fifties " on the discovery 

 of the goldfields, many of these vessels having been far from seaworthy. 

 and been patched up with false bottoms which had become riddled with 

 Teredo navalis and fouled with marine growths, affording ample sheltei' 

 for the fry and young crabs on their long voyage. Messrs. Fulton and 

 Grant suggest that this explanation may also account for the scattered 

 distribution of the species as indicated by Dr. Alcock. 



I am now able to add another example of the same method of dispersal. 

 When the British Antarctic ship " Terra Nova " arrived in Lyttelton in 

 October, 1910, it was stated in the newspapers that the sides of her hull 

 were covered with a plentiful growth of seaweed, barnacles, &c.. and that 

 after she was tied up to the wharf numerous fish were seen feeding on these. 

 As soon as possible after she had been taken into dock I visited the vessel. 

 but, unfortunately, before I could get down the water had been pumped 

 out of dock, and her sides had been already scraped. From the floor of the 

 dock, however, I secured the following cirripedes : Lepas hilli Leach, Le-pas 

 australis Darwin, Conchodenna aiirita Linn., Conchoderma virgata Spengler. 

 and Balanus tintinnabulum Linn. These are all species which are known 

 to attach themselves to floating logs, and they are also commonly found on 

 ships, and they therefore present nothing new of interest. However, in 

 one of the planks which had been partially split, and therefore removed 

 by the workmen, there were fomid four specimens of a large sphaeromid. 

 Cymodoce tuberculata Haswell.* both male nnd female specimens, two of 

 these being still aUve when I secured them. 



This species is quite unknown in New Zealand waters, but is an Aus- 

 tralian one, and there seems little doubt that it had attached itself to the 

 ship while she was staying in Port PhiUip, and had travelled Avith the 

 ship all the way to New Zealand — i.e., about twelve hundred miles. The 

 hull of the ship is not covered over with copper, but is all wood. The 



* My specimens do not quite agree with Haswell's description and tiginvs in the 

 amount of tuberculation of the body and in the details of the processes on the i)leon. 

 and they may prove to be a distinct but allied species. The two specimc;ns which 1 

 consider to be the females of the species differ jxreatly in general ajipearance from the 

 males, as is generally the cas(^ in this genus, and I have not yet been able to identify 

 them with any form already described. These (jiiestions must be discussed elsewhere, 

 and they do not affect the present argument, which depends on the fact that the species 

 in question is certainly not known from New Zealand, and is either identical with an 

 Australian species already described or very closely allied thereto. 



