A FOSSIL ISOPOD OF THE FRESHWATER GENUS PHREATOICUS. 385 



III 1902, he established another genus, Hypsimetopus, for 

 a blind species, H. intrusor, found in the burrows of the 

 land cray-fish, Engceus, in Tasmania. 



In 1906, I described a species, P. kirkii, with variety 

 dunedinensis, which though blind was found in surface 

 streams in southern parts of New Zealand. 



In 1909, G. W. Smith recorded the existence of P. aus- 

 tralis from numerous localities in Tasmania, and described 

 another species, P. spinosus, from the Great Lake; this, 

 however is most probably identical with P. tasmanice G. M. 

 Thomson. Smith drew special attention to the importance 

 of the evidence supplied by Phreatoicus and other fresh- 

 water Crustacea of Australia for an Antarctic connection 

 between New Zealand, Southern Australia and South 

 America (1909 a, p. 69). 



In 1914, K. H. Barnard recorded the existence of a species 

 of the genus in freshwater streams on Table Mountain, 

 South Africa, the species being named P. capensis, and 

 after referring to the statement made by Sayce in 1902 to 

 the effect that it would be interesting to know if any repre- 

 sentatives were found in South America, added: — "The 

 discovery of a species on Table Mountain, South Africa, is 

 therefore of great interest, as being one more fact in support 

 of the existence of an ancient land-mass connecting the 

 southern continents (Gondwana land)" (1914, p. 233). 



5. Other Fossil Isopoda. 

 The fossil Isopoda hitherto described are few in number, 

 and, as Caiman (1909, p. 208) says, "The little that is 

 known of their morphology leaves their systematic position 

 in most cases doubtful and throws no light on the phylo- 

 genetic history of the group." No palaeozoic forms are 

 known with any certainty; Oxyuropoda Hgioides Carpenter 

 and Swain has been described from the Devonian of Ireland 



Y— October 3, 1917. 



