Printed in Great Britain OSMOTIC AND IONIC REGULATION IN DIFFERENT POPULATIONS OF THE NEW ZEALAND FRESHWATER CRAYFISH PARANEPHROPS ZEALANDICUS

1. Some features of the osmoregulatory mechanism are compared in four populations of Paranephrops zealandicus White collected from freshwaters of different ionic concentrations. 2. Crayfish from freshwaters of ca. 2-0 mM-NaCl concentration show a sustained decrease in blood concentration of ca. 8 % when placed in 0-2 mM-NaCl. 3. Populations from freshwaters of ca. 0-2-0-4 mM-NaCl show lower rates of net salt loss in distilled water and higher rates of net salt uptake from dilute NaCl solutions than do populations from freshwaters of ca. 0-8-2-0 mM-NaCl. 4. Renal salt losses over the first 24 h in distilled water account for ca. 18 % of the total salt loss. 5. It is suggested that P. zealandicus from environments of lowest con-centration shows a similar degree of adaptation to freshwater as do crayfish of the northern hemisphere. It differs in possessing a substantially higher blood concentration