•loupv. "Roy. f^oc. Western* aitstr.uja, Vol, ^XII. No. 1). 
79 
’Contributions 
from tlio T)e])avtnuut 
V/osterii Austr:ibu. 
of Hiology, 
No. 12. 
Fnivorsity of 
Neoniphargus obrieni, a New Species of Blind Amphipod from 
Victoria, by Gecrge E. Nicbolls, D.Sc., F.L.S.. Professor of 
BiologA^, University of Western Austroba. 
{Read June 8. 192(i. 
July 1926.) 
During a short ^'isit t<> ^Melbourne, in Pei)ruary of this year, 
r was able to spend a week-enl at Mt, Buffalo. Colleeting trips 
Avero made to all ])arts of th^' plateau, and in ])ractieally every 
place, AA'here Avater stood in shallow pools or bowed in reedy runnels, 
specimens of Phreatoicus were found abundantly. As^ so far as 
T can discoA^er, Phreatoicus has not been recorded from this locality 
and as the specimens seemed to differ in some })articulars from 
P. austmlis, T collected a large number from different parts of the 
plateau for more careful oxamina^-iou. 
From my exi)erience in (‘o!lectiug Phrratoinis in Western Aiis 
tralia, as aaoJI as from Geoffrey Mmith’s account of collecting in 
Tasmania, 1 looke.l to find some s]>ecimens of Ncoai pharf/iis asso- 
ciated Avith the isopod and Avas Hur])rlsed at its aj>purent absence. 
Finally, on the last day of my stay, tracing Phreaioicus up a creek, 
I came upon a small S])ring dischai'ging into a sphagnum bog, at 
an altitude of about 4.800 fad; here, by removing a (juantity of 
the bog-moss, I cleared a small s]>ace, to the depth of a couple of 
feet or so, and from the exposed water and the decaying moss at 
the bottom of the cavity secured more than two dozen small pink 
Amphipods. Several Avere evidently mature females Avith obvious 
brood-pouch. With but a pocket lens, it Avas not possible to identify 
these positively as Neonipharpus, but their practically eyeless con- 
dition (a tiny sj)ot of Avhite pigment alone remaining of these 
organs) marked them as almost certainly lunv, the only other blind 
Amphipods, knoAvn to me from Eastern Australia, being Gammarus 
haasei, AAdiich is a mucli larger form, and Nipharf/iis pulchcllus, 
readily to be recognised by its long third uropod. 
The taking of a Gammarid at this height seems to constitute 
a record for this group in Australia, Gammarus harringtonensis 
being taken in N.S.W. at an altitude a foAv hundred feet less. 
That, also, was accompanied by a species of Phreatoicus (P. 
