240 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 
situated above its posterior extremity, which is rounded. Rami 
of the caudal appendages small, pointed, and granulated, the 
exterior ramus obscurely toothed on the external border. Length, 
half an inch” (h). 
As no figure of this species has yet been published, the accom- 
panying enlarged illustration (Pl. X., fig. 1) has been prepared 
for this article by the writer :— 
SPHEROMA VERRUCAUDA, White. 
A New Zealand species which hardly differs from the fore- 
going. Dana reports it from the Bay of Islands “ in rotten wood 
in cavities bored by the Teredo (z).” 
By the kindness of Mr. G. M. Thomson, who furnished me with 
a specimen from Kerepuru, New Zealand, I am enabled to pre- 
sent the accompanying illustration of the species (Pl. X., fig. 
2) :— 
a species of Sphaeroma, distinct from S. quoyana, and pro- 
bably unnamed, has been seen by the writer from Wyong, 
N.S.W., and Port Mackay, Q. 
The Sphaeroma works from half tide to low tide level. In 
all stages of growth it is very destructive to timber, both hard 
and soft. As Bates has remarked, of an allied form :—‘‘ The 
mouth appears well adapted for the purpose (of gnawing timber). 
The mandibles are strong and powerful appendages, and furnished 
with a rasping organ, while the strong posterior pairs of pleopoda 
are well adapted for the purpose of pressing the animal forward in 
its cavity ; the posterior pair of pleopoda must be very effective 
organs also, by the leverage that may be attained through them 
for assisting the animal to turn easily in its narrow cave.” 
On Plate VII. is shown the action of adult Sphaeroma quoy- 
ana on a block of hardwood (Eucalypt), 3 x 4 in. This timber 
formed one of the ribs of a craft which is now, and has been for 
several years, lying as a wreck at the head of Mosman’s Bay, 
Sydney Harbour. The individual perforations are } in. in dia- 
meter. At one end the timber has been completely eaten 
through by these vermin, while softer wood of equal size had 
been altogether demolished. With the Sphaeroma is always as- 
sociated a minute crustacean identified for me by Mr. Whitelegge 
as Janira sp. 
This Sphaeroma has been observed by Mr. Whitelegge to bore 
holes in the sandstone rock at Mosman’s Bay. S. verrucauda 
has been accredited with a similar habit. 
To the direct injury wrought by the Sphaeroma may be added 
the harm that it may do by exposing wood otherwise protected to 
the entrance of the shipworm. 
(h) Haswell. Catalogue Australian Crustacea, 1882, p. 287. 
(i) Dana. U.S. Expl. Exped., xiii., 1852, Pl. ii., p. 779. 
