Iais pubescens, Dana.

1852. Jæra pubescens, Dana, United States Exploring Expedition, Crustacea, vol. ii., p. 744, pl. xlix., figs. 9a-9d.

1883. Jæra novæ-zealandiæ, Chilton, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xv., p. 189.

1886. Jæra neo-zelanica, Thomson and Chilton, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xviii., p. 157.

1886. Iais pubescens, Bovallius, “Notes on the Family Asellidæ,” Bihang till K. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handlingar, band xi., No. 15, p. 50.

1886. Jæra pubescens, Beddard, “Report on the ‘C hallenger’ Isopoda,” part ii., p. 19, pl. ii., figs. 6–10.

1888. Iais neo-zelanica, Thomson, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxi., p. 265.

I have little doubt that my Jæra novæ-zealandiæ is the same as Jæra pubescens, Dana. When I described it I was not acquainted with Dana's species, but subsequently I saw his figure in the copy of his atlas in the library of the Canterbury Museum; and, as there is no copy of the text in that library, Mr. Alexander Morton, of the Tasmanian Museum, Hobart, was good enough to copy out the description for me from the copy in the library of the Royal Society of Tasmania. From these I judged that the two species would most likely have to be united, and this conclusion was confirmed by the fuller description given by Beddard in the “Report of the ‘C hallenger’ Isopoda.” My specimens agree very closely with Beddard's description, but his figure does not appear altogether satisfactory, and in some points does not correspond with his description. Thus, there appears no warrant for the notches shown on the sides of the head, and apparently also on the bases of the antennæ; the first segment of the pereion is not shown longer than the succeeding, as it is described, and as it really is; and the lateral margins of the segments do not show the division into lobes mentioned, nor the arrangement of setæ thereon as described.

Dana's specimens of Jæra pubescens were taken in a semiparasitic condition on Sphæroma lanceolatum at Patagonia; and specimens, which Beddard identifies with Dana's species, were obtained during the “Challenger” Expedition at Kerguelen Island in a similar condition on a Sphæromid, which Beddard identifies as Sphæroma gigas, a species which is, he says, hardly distinguishable from Sphæroma lanccolatum.

My original specimen of Jæra novæ-zealandiæ was not taken directly from a Sphæromid, but was found in a bottle with other Crustacea from Lyttelton Harbour, though I do not know the exact circumstances of its capture. Since then I have taken specimens of the same species at Akaroa, creeping