Forty-five species of harpacticoid copepod (twenty-eight of them new), from sixteen genera and seven families, are described from New Zealand. The species were collected from a wide variety of freshwater habitats as well as from coastal and inland brackish water bodies and from terrestrial habitats with thin water films. Two new genera, Australomoraria and Taneroa, are described from within the Family Canthocamptidae, a family which contains the majority of species, and the genus Antipodiella Brehm, 1928, is resurrected, Keys to families, genera and species are given where applicable. The origins and relationships of the freshwater harpacticoid fauna are considered, together with its ecological and geographical distribution within New Zealand.
