60 A NEW ZEALAND NATURALIST'S CALENDAR. 



our gardens, though it is much more abundant in the bush 

 among dead leaves, rotten wood, etc. Frequently when 

 one disturbs such material, or when a bunch of cocksfoot 

 grass is pulled up by the roots, a number of small brown 

 hoppers are exposed, and these either wriggle away on 

 their sides or spring off to a distance of some inches and 

 then squirm out of sight. Occasionally one lies quite still 

 on its side as if dead, and then, finding that it is not further 

 molested, rises quietly and walks off to convenient cover. 

 These hoppers belong to a different group from the wood- 

 lice namely, the Amphipoda, so called because they 

 have both walking and swimming legs. Their bodies are 

 flattened laterally, so that though they can walk erect, they 

 can more quickly wriggle away on their sides. Of their 

 seven pairs of thoracic legs, the first two are usually very 

 feeble ; the next five are for walking, two having the claws 

 directed backwards and the other three forwards. The 

 abdominal appendages are quite different from those of 

 the wood-lice, for the first three pairs are in most Amphi- 

 poda used as swimming organs, but as our hopper has 

 become adapted to terrestrial life these limbs are reduced 

 very much in size and have become f unctionless. The last 

 three pairs are short and stiff, and only serve to help the 

 creature to jump. When a Crayfish is desirous of escaping 

 quickly in the water it whips the abdomen with its large 

 tail fin under the body with such force that the animal is 

 propelled backwards with a rapid jerk ; but when a hopper 

 wants to escape it brings the tail smartly down on the 

 ground and so leaps xipwards and forwards. The breath- 

 ing is accomplished by gills which are attached to the 

 thoracic legs. 



These hoppers which occur in our bush and in the 

 gardens are also found in Australia and Tasmania in 

 similar localities. I have picked them up on the slopes 

 of Mount Wellington, close to Hobart, and I have plenty 

 of specimens in my collection which were gathered in New 

 South Wales. It is interesting to speculate as to how a 

 creature which drowns in two or three minutes when 

 placed in sea water, comes to be found in localties separated 



