1919.] Chilton.—Boring Crustacea in New Zealand. 11 
cable which had been bored through by the Limnoria (1916, p. 208). Three 
specimens were sent with the guttapercha, and I found another still in the 
hole bored by it. By examination of the mouth-parts, See., I ascertained 
definitely that these were Limnoria 
lignorum , and not the New Zealand 
species, L. segnis . Mr. Shrimpton, 
of the Telegraph Department, in¬ 
formed me that the piece of cable 
examined came from a spot where 
a failure had occurred off Sinclair 
Head at a depth of about 60 fathoms, 
the spot being 4-75 nautical miles 
distant from the nearest land, Sin¬ 
clair Head, and 13-75 nautical miles 
from the entrance to Wellington 
Harbour. As I have already pointed 
out (1916, p. 208), these facts show 
not only that the gribble has be¬ 
come very abundant in New Zealand 
harbours, but that it is to be found 
at a considerable distance from har¬ 
bours, and possesses powers of 
dispersal hardly to be expected if 
we consider the small size of the 
animal and its limited powers of 
locomotion 
SpHAEROMA QUO YANA MlLNE- 
Edwards. 
The Isopod Sjphaeroma quoyana 
Milne - Edwards was described in 
1840 from Australian specimens, but 
without any record of its boring 
habits. In 1853 Dana described a 
species which he named S. verru- 
cauda (which has since been proved 
to be identical with Milne-Edwards’s 
species) from the Bay of Islands, 
New Zealand, and stated that it was 
found “ in rotten wood in cavities 
bored by Teredo Miers in 1876 
recorded the species from “ Auck¬ 
land, Hobson’s Bay,” from specimens 
in the British Museum, and, after 
referring to Dana’s statement that 
it occurred in cavities bored by 
Teredo , says that the specimens in 
the British Museum inhabit similar 
cavities in a piece of limestone. 
I think that there can be little doubt 
that the cavities in which Dana 
found his specimens had been bored 
Fig. 10. —Totara pile, driven 1896, drawn 
1917. Showing damage by Limnoria 
lignorum and Chelura terebrans. (After 
Hamer.) 
