CRUSTACEA OF NEW ZEALAND. 2i7 



that they were without pigment and of a dirty white colour, and the animals were still 

 alive when got from the pump by Mr. Smith, who watched their movements for some 

 hours before sending them off to Mr. Suter. 



The aquatic worm obtained by Mr. Smith was forwarded to Mr. P. E. Beddard, who 

 has described it as " Phreodrilus subterraneus, nov. gen. et n. sp.," making it the type of 

 a new family of the Aquatic Oligochaeta, viz. the Phreodrilidae [8]. The genus is, he 

 considers, a very remarkable one, and, in addition to various peculiarities in the internal 

 anatomy, the character of the setae is alone sufficient for the creation of a new family. 

 He regards the Phreodrilidte as a very low form of Oligochaeta, greatly specialized in 

 certain directions. He adds : — " I should explain that in using the term ' low ' I do not 

 mean that this genus is in any way near the ancestral form of the Oligochaeta. The 

 simplicity of structure in this and other aquatic genera is rather to be looked upon as 

 evidence of degeneration." He places the Phreodrilidae nearer the Naidomorpha than to 

 any other group of the Oligoehajta, though admitting that the position of the genital 

 organs suggests an affinity with the Enchytraeidae. There are also a few points in which 

 Phreodrilus recalls tlie higher among the Oligochaeta, and Mr. Beddard comes to the 

 conclusion that " it should be placed some way off the line leading from the more highly- 

 developed Lumbriculidae to the lower Naidomorpha, but that its precise relationships 

 require further study, and cannot be determined with any probability of success at the 

 present time " [8, p. 292]. 



I have given the above account of Phreodrilus pretty fully because it appears in many 

 respects to be parallel to the case of Phreotoims,'{ov which I have had to establish a 

 new family. The two cases confirm each other, and show how exceedingly interesting 

 the subterranean fauna really is. No doubt other discoveries quite as interesting as 

 these will yet repay careful and systematic search, for as yet the ground has been 

 prospected merely, not thoroughly worked. 



Besides animals which, like the above-mentioned, undoubtedly belong to the true 

 subterranean fauna, it appears that surface animals from the neighbourhood of the wells 

 may sometimes be obtained through the pump, apparently from the well. Thus I have 

 several times taken Cyclops novce-zealandicB, G. M. Thomson, from wells at Eyreton. 

 The specimens were exactly like those found in surface pools in the neighbourhood and 

 had the eye perfect, and had no doubt got into the well by accident — an accident that 

 with this small creature might very easily happen. On one occasion Mr. Smith, after 

 pumping for three quarters of an hour from a well at the Elgin Schoolhouse near 

 Ashl)urton, 50 feet deep, and fitted with a cylinder-pump, obtained a spider and a small 

 Gasteropod shell, and the seeds of some plants. The spider, which has perfect eyes, is, 

 Mr. Goyen informs me, a species of Theridion frequently found in dark situations, such 

 as crevices of rocks, &c. The seeds were submitted to !Mr. D. Petrie, who wi-ites that one 

 belongs to Chenopodinm , wliich is abundant everywhere in the district. The shell, deter- 

 mined by Mr. Suter, is Amphipeplea ampiilh/, Hutton, a species found everywhere in 

 creeks, rivers, pools, &c. ; the animal had evidently been dead for some time, as the body 

 was decayed ; the shell was of the normal horny colour, and, like the spider and the seeds, it 

 must apparently have got into the pump by some accident, and forms no part of the true 



