The freshwater Amphipoda (Crustacea) of New Zealand: a review

Although it is > 100 years since the first taxonomic descriptions appeared, the freshwater and groundwater amphipod fauna of New Zealand is still poor ly known. During the nineteenth century, the New Zealand groundwater fauna became renowned through the work of Charles Chilton, in particular. The cur rently known amphipod fauna comprises 19 species in 9 genera among 8 famili es. Although apparently poor in species, the fauna is diverse at generic an d family levels, and recent studies show that several more epigean and hypo gean taxa await description. This paper reviews each genus and species, dia gnoses genera, and provides synonymies of genera and species, as well as di scussing their taxonomic status.