G. M. Thomson. — Notes on New Zealand Crustacea. 209 



this species were taken under dead leaves in the woods by Mr. Hook during 

 the voyage of the Erebus and Terror, and presented to the British Museum." 

 As this is a httoral species, it is probable that the dead leaves were on the 

 extreme edge of the bush, close to high water-mark. I have taken it in 

 such localities myself in great abundance, both at Otago heads and at many 

 spots in Stewart Island, but always within a few yards of the beach, and 

 just where the sea and bush soil meet. In " Facts for Darwin,"' p. 27, 

 Fritz Miiller — somewhat led astray by the habitat given by Sp. Bate — 

 says : — " I cannot refrain from taking this opportunity of remarking that 

 (so far as appears from Spence Bate's catalogue), for two different kinds of 

 males (Orcliestia telluris and sylvicola) which live together in the forests of 

 New Zealand, only one form of female is known, and hazarding the suppo- 

 sition that we have here a similar case.* It does not seem to me to be 

 probable that two nearly-allied species of these social Amphipoda should 

 occur mixed together under the same conditions of life." 



This passage is unintentionally misleading, for 0. telluris is by no means 

 a terrestrial species. It lives in burrows in the sand just above tide-marks, 

 and in the localities where it occurs may be seen hopping about in count- 

 less numbers. It certainly does not occur in the bush, strictly so called, 

 but only on the very margin of it, where it joins the beach. Both male and 

 female of this species are very distinct in form, in the former particularly 

 the squamiform plate on the carpus of the fifth pair of pereiopoda, is a very 

 characteristic mark. 



(4.) 0. chilensis, M.-Edw., is another very distinct species. It is the 

 most strictly littoral of all the species, living under stones and in little 

 pools between tide-marks, and never coming out on dry sand. It occurs in 

 great abundance round our coasts, and is the commonest form in Otago 

 harbour. 



(5.) 0. serrulata, Dana. While in Stewart Island in January last, I 

 got four males and one female of this species under stones between tide- 

 marks in Paterson Inlet. These agreed in all respects except size (they 

 were under half an inch long) with the description in the Brit. Mus. Cat. 



(6 and 7.) 0. sylvicola, Dana, and 0. tenuis, Dana. 



In regard to the last of these species, the habitat given in the Brit. Mus. 

 Cat. is " Bay of Islands, New Zealand, Dana." This would lead one to 

 believe that the species was marine or littoral. I have collected Orchestia 

 in great numbers for some years past from many localities, and have never 

 found any answering to this species among either marine or httoral forms. 

 In the bush, however, I have frequently gathered specimens which I have 

 referred to it, though somewhat doubtfully. The same remark applies to 



* Alluding to the two forms of male of Orchestia darwinii. 



27 



