the Species o/Limnoiia. 381 



To ascertain if the Tjinworia occurred elsevvliere in New 

 Zealand, 1 applied to Mr. Cyrus Williams, En^rineer to the 

 Lyttelton Harbour Board, who most obligingly sent me a 

 specimen of an ironbaik pile, the outer part of which was 

 partially destroyed. Examination showed that this destruc- 

 tion also had been caused by Limnoria I'lgnoruin^ though in 

 this particular case it appeared to be unaccompanied by 

 Chelura terebrans. Mr. Williams stated that in Lyttelton 

 Harbour the animal could perhaps hardly be called a borer, 

 as it seemed to operate only on tlie surface, removing about 

 one inch from the outside of an ironbark pile in about thirty 

 years, though Avith softer timber its operations were much 

 more rapid. Later on, in December 1913, I found the same 

 species, Limnoria Itgnorum, boring into piles in Akaroa 

 Harbour, though here again it did not appear to be accom- 

 panied by the Chelura. 



Probably it will be found that Limnoria Ugnorum has been 

 similarly introduced into many other harbours. In a paper 

 on the marine wood-borers of Australia, read at the Melbourne 

 Meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, in January 1900, Mr. Chas. Hedley (1901, 

 p. 237) stated that neither Limnoria lignoram nor Chelura 

 terehrans had up to that time been recorded by naturalists 

 from A.ustralasian seas, but in a footnote, added on the 14th 

 June, 1901, as bis paper was passing through the press, he 

 states that Mr. T. Wliitelegge had identified L. Ugnorum 

 from timber from a floating jetty at Circular Quay, and 

 again from part of the hull of a ferry-boat plying in Sydney 

 Harbour. 



In the timber, both from Auckland and from Lyttelton, I 

 found, ^ along with the Limnoria, numerous specimens of 

 another Amjihipod, " Corophiuni contractu ni,'''' G. M. Thom- 

 son (1881, p. 220). The Corophium^ however, did not 

 appear to be boring into the timber, but to be merely taking 

 advantage of the decay caused by the Limnoria, and thereby 

 securing a suitable dwelling-place and probably also food. 

 Dr. Macdonald has (1875, p. 67) described a similar associa- 

 tion in England, whore Tanais vittatus was found in the iioles 

 bored by Limnoria Ugnorum and Chelura terehrans. 



In this paper I do not propose to deal with the borer from 

 the economic aspect; some details of the damage done in 

 Australasia by these Crustacea and by other borers is given 

 in Mr. Hedley's paper. The examination of the specimens, 

 however, necessitated a com] arison with L. segnis, a siiecies 

 which does not bore into wood, but lives on seaweed, paiti- 



