Sphaeroma quoyana Milne-Edwards.

Sphaeroma quoyana Milne-Edwards, Hist. Nat. des Crust., vol. III, p. 206, 1840; Heller, Reise der Novara, Crust. p. 137, 1868; Haswell, Cat. Aust. Crust., p. 287, 1882; Hedley, Rep. Aust. Assoc., vol. 8, p. 239, pl. 10, fig. 1, 1901. S. verrucauda White, List Crust. Brit. Mus., p. 102 (sine descr.), 1847; Dana, U.S. Explor. Exped., vol. 14, Crust., pt. 2, p. 779, pl. 52, fig. 6, 1853; Miers, Cat. N.Z. Crust., p. III, 1876; Haswell, Cat. Aust. Crust. p. 288, 1882; Hutton, Index Faunae N.Z., p. 263, 1904; Stebbing, Spolia Zeylanica, vol. 11, pt. 5, p. 21, 1904; Hansen, Q. J. Micro. Soc., vol. 49, pt. 1, p. 116, 1905; Hedley, Rep. Aust. Assoc., vol. 8, p. 239, 1901.

Sphaeroma quoyana was described by Milne-Edwards in 1840 from Australian specimens, but nothing appears to have been recorded by him about its boring habits. Haswell had not seen the species when preparing the “Catalogue of the Australian Crustacea.”

In 1853 Dana described a species under the name of S. verrucauda, from the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, his specimens having been found “in rotten wood in cavities bored by Teredo.” Miers, in his “Catalogue of the New Zealand Crustacea,” in 1876, records the species from “Auckland, Hobson's Bay,” and notes that these specimens inhabited “similar cavities in a piece of sandstone.” He also mentioned that specimens from Port Jackson, Australia, were in the collections of the British Museum, but that the New Zealand specimens were much more hairy than those from Australia. Many years ago Mr. J. Macmahon sent me numerous specimens that I identified as S. verrucauda, which he found boring into soft sandstone on the shores of Kenepuru Sound, and in July, 1910, I found similar specimens in the neighbouring Queen Charlotte Sound, and was able to see for myself beyond doubt that the holes in the sandstone were bored by the Sphaeroma and not by a Teredo; the holes vary in size from 2 mm. to 7 mm. in diameter, and were occupied by Sphaeromae of corresponding sizes, and there was no trace of any Teredo in the sandstone.

In 1901 Hedley, in a paper on the “Marine Wood-borers of Australasia,” mentions both S. verrucauda and S. quoyana, the latter having been found boring in wood in Sydney Harbour, and mentions that it hardly differs from S. verrucauda. In 1903 I received from Mr. T. White-legge specimens of S. quoyana from Sydney Harbour, and in forwarding them he said, “S. quoyana is identical with specimens from Mr. Thomson's collection labelled ‘S. verrucauda.’” These specimens were some of those that had been handed on by me to Mr. Thomson.

I have now been able to compare specimens from different parts of New Zealand, and also others, labelled “S. quoyana,” from Victoria and Tasmania, and I quite agree with Mr. Whitelegge that the two species should be united. The species belongs to the same section of Sphaeroma as S. terebrans Spence Bate and the other species found boring into wood in various parts of the world, and the fact that S. quoyana is undoubtedly able to bore into sandstone seems worthy of definite record.

Iais pubescens var. longistylis (see above) seems to be regularly associated with S. quoyana as a commensal or semiparasite just as the typical form of I. pubescens is with Sphaeroma gigas.