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Show 7 0 2 PROF. C. CHILTON ON CRUSTACEA [June 19^ 5. Note on some Crustacea from the Freshwater Lakes of New Zealand. By C h a r l e s C h i l t o n , M.A., D.Sc.,. F.L.S., Professor of Biology, Canterbury College, New Zealand. [Received May 18, 1906.J Dr. G. S. Brady has been good enough to submit to me the few Amphipoda and other higher Crustacea collected by Messrs. Lucas and Hodgkin during their recent investigation of the principal lakes of New Zealand*. The first specimens reached me in November 1905 and were at once reported upon; a few additional specimens were received in March 1906, and an examination of these lias necessitated some alteration of the general remarks at first made. It wTill be seen from the following list that the collections of the higher Crustacea were rather meagre and that all the specimens secured belong to species already known. For many years I have looked forward to making collections from the freshwater lakes of New Zealand in the hope of finding there Crustacea allied to the blind forms inhabiting the underground waters of the Canterbury Plains, just as forms closely allied to European subterranean species are found in the deep waters of the Swiss Lakes. The Crustacea first sent me by Dr. Brady were, however, disappointing from this point of view, but among those lately received there are two specimens of the blind species Parcdeptamphopus suhterraneus (Chilton), one specimen from Lake Wakatipu (depth not stated) in the South Island, and the other from Lake Taupo in the North Island, taken at a depth of 700 feet. This species is widely distributed in the underground waters of the Canterbury Plains, and has also been found in surface streams at Castle Hill in Canterbury and in the Longwood Range in Southland, and its occurrence in the two lakes named still further widens its area of distribution. It is closely allied to Parcdeptamphopus ccendeus (G. M. Thomson), first described from a small stream at the top of the Old Man Range in Otago, at a height of about 3000 feet, but since found to be, like its underground representative, more widely distributed. The next most interesting species is the little Isopod that I have identified as Paranthura nigro-punctata (Lucas). Though a surface form it is of particular interest, since it is the only known freshwater species of the Anthuridae, and thus helps to throw some light on the origin of the subterranean species Cruregens fontanus, which belongs to the same family. Taken in connection with the recent discovery of a Caprellid in the Lake of Geneva, the occurrence of this Anthurid in freshwater leads us to hope that other unexpected finds may be looked for on a further examination of the lakes. Two other species, Tenagomysis novce-zecdandiw and Para- * " A Bathymetrical Survey of the Lakes of New Zealand," by Keith Lucas Geographical Journal, May & June 1904. |