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Tuatara: Volume 7, Issue 1, September 1958

Corrections to the Key to New Zealand Terrestrial Isopods

page 8

Corrections to the Key to New Zealand Terrestrial Isopods

Since the appearance in Tuatara of a key to the New Zealand Terrestrial Isopods (Hurley, 1950), there has been published an important paper by Professor A. Vandel of Toulouse on some terrestrial isopods of the Southern Hemisphere. In this paper, Professor Vandel re-describes some of the New Zealand Trichoniscidae, discusses their generic and family status, and gives a key to the species examined. In particular, he makes the following nomenclatural changes.

Under the Super-Family Synocheta Legrand, or ‘Trichoniscoid complex’, he places those New Zealand species, previously considered as Family Trichoniscidae, in the new Family Styloniscidae. This is divided into two sub-families, the Styloniscinae and Notoniscinae.

The Notoniscinae includes the New Zealand species, Notoniscus helmsii and Noton'scus australis.

The Styloniscinae includes the re-established genus Stylcniscus Dana, to which belong the following four New Zealand species, previously regarded as Trichoniscus - S. magellanicus, S. otakensis, S. phormianus, S. thomsoni.

Two further species of Trichoniscus were listed in Tuatara. Professor Vandel has not examined specimens of these, but on the basis of published descriptions and figures he suggests that T. kermadecensis perhaps belongs to Styloniscus, and that T. commensalis is probably the type of a new genus and perhaps even of a distinct family.

The paper also includes an account of some features of the musculature of these isopods, and a discussion of their zoogeographical distribution.

In the original Tuatara article, a figure of Haplophthalmus tasmanicus appeared as Cubaris suteri, which is superficially similar. This error does not appear in reprints of the article.

Literature Cited

HURLEY, D. E., 1950— New Zealand Terrestrial Isopods. Tuatara 3 (3): 115-127, 29 figs.

VANDEL, A., 1952— Les Trichoniscides (Crustaces - Isopodes) de l'Hemisphere Austral. Mem. Mus. Natl. l'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, n.s. Zool. 6 (1): 1-116, figs. 1-79.