Jour. Kov. Soc. Western Australia, Vol. XTI, Xo. 10. 87 
Contributions from tlic I)e])artment of Biology, University of 
Western Australia. No. 4. 
Description of a New Species of Terrestrial Isopod, Haloniscus 
Stephen!, from Western Australia, by Geo. E. Nicholls, D.Sc., 
F.L.S., Professor of Biology, and Helena M. Barnes, B.Sc. 
{Head July IJ, 19‘’(b Published July 20, .1926.) 
Tlie specimens wliicli form the subject of the present commu- 
nication Avere collected by one of us (G.E.N.) Avhen on a trip 
through the northern jiart of the Wheat Belt in January of this 
year. 
The find Avas a purely accidental one, a trivial motor defect 
having caused us to pull up by the l)aiik of tlie Kokatea Creek; at 
the particular spot the Creek at this time Avas dry, but the surface 
crust, thickly S])read with salt crystals, coA^ered a Auscid mud 
beneath. 
The Aveather was ijiteiisely hot (llo° P., shade temperature), 
but a slight fall of rain a couple of days earlier had served to 
eft'ect a temporary moistening of the surface, Avhich persisted in 
shaded spots. When floAving, the Creek (Avhich had been stroiigly 
salt for seA’’eral years, as A\'as learned from enquiries made locally) 
discharged into the Greenough PiA'er. A foAv stones resting upon 
the muddy crust Avere turned and yielded nothing of interest, but 
a couple of small logs, in a A'ery decayed state, just iijnin the 
u])per limit of the Creek bank, concealed each a dozen or so of 
the Oniscid. They were comparatively small, l)ut their unusual 
colour (whitish, Avith dark intestine indicated through translucent 
b(pily Avail) and their exceptionally com])ressed and elongate sha])e, 
marked them as ucav, and, consequently, as many as ])ossib1e were 
collected. They Avere quite actiAT and a number succeeded in making- 
good their escape doAvn tiny bnrroAvs into the softer mud beneath. 
Ibidouhtedly they are ca])able of leading life under terrestrial con- 
ditions, but their occurrence upon the banks of a creek Avhich is 
brackish at the best and jiredominantly salt, suggested a relation- 
shi]i Avitli forms iuhaluting salt AA'aters or the shores of salt lakes. 
A comparison of our sjAecimens with the descrijition furnished by 
Chilton of Haloniscus s((nici. left us in no doubt of its close re- 
