388 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
NOTE ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE GENUS SEROLIS, 
AND ITS OCCURRENCE ON THE SHORES OF NEW 
ZEALAND. By Frank E. Bepparp, M.A. Oxon., F.R.S. (Ed.) 
Prosector to the Zoological Society of London. 
—_—_-_> 
The genus Sero/is has long been familiar to naturalists from the 
outward resemblance which it bears to the extinct Trilobites ; the broad 
flattened body with its long curved epimera and the reniform eyes have 
led many naturalists to believe that the resemblance which this remark- 
able genus undoubetedly does show to the Tvilobites is a mark of near 
affinity. Fabricius, the first to describe a species of the genus, says of 
it-—‘‘An Protypon Eutomolithi paradoxi? In multis certe convenit ;” 
M. Milne Edwards, who has considerably increased our knowledge of 
the genus, regards it as an intermediate between the Trilobites and the 
rest of the Isopoda ; but, in the opinion of the majority, the resem- 
blance is merely superficial, and has been, no doubt, caused by similarity 
of habits. The Trilobites, so far as they are understood, have no 
particular relations to the Isopoda. 
This genus, however, possesses a genuine interest for naturalists, on 
account of its peculiar geographical distribution. Having recently had 
occasion to study its distribution very carefully in preparing a Report 
on the Isopoda dredged by the “Challenger,” I was struck by the fact 
that very little appeared to be known regarding the occurrence ot the 
genus at New Zealand, and that that little tended to show a very con- 
siderable difference from the neighbouring continent of Australia ; the 
only two species that are known with anything like probability to occur 
at New Zealand are also characteristic of Patagonia, while the Austra- 
lian species are not merely confined to that region, but form a distinct 
subdivision of the genus, so that the difference between the Serolis-fauna 
of Australia and New Zealand is very marked. It occurred to me, 
therefore, that a brief notice of the distribution of this genus, with 
special reference to its occurrence at New Zealand, might be of some 
interest. 
Altogether there are some twenty species of the genus known, 
which are distributed in the following manner:—seven species (Serolis 
paradoxa, S. trilobitoides, S. convexa, S. plana, S. gaudichaudu, S. 
schythei, S. serret) are peculiar to the shores of South America, not 
extending further north than Valparaiso, on the west coast of that 
Continent, and the Falkland Islands on the east. Serolis trilobitoides is 
also found at the South Shetlands. Three species (S. cornuta, S. septem- 
carvnata, and §S. latifrons) inhabit the shores of Kerguelen and the 
adjacent islands (Marion Island, the Crozets). Serolis cornuta is very 
possibly the same species as S. trilobitoides ; the latter was described as 
long ago as 1833 by Eights (Trans. Albany Inst., 1833), and it is rather 
difficult to find any definite points wherein that species as described by 
Eights differs from the Kerguelen S. cornuta.  Serolis latifrons was 
obtained during the voyage of the “Erebus” and “Terror” at the South 
Auckland Islands, and it very possibly also occurs at New Zealand, 
though I can find no published record. All the species mentioned so far 
were described previously to my notice of the species dredged by the 
“‘Challenger ;” in fact, the only new forms from shallow water which I 
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