POLYCHJETA. BENHAM. 173 



REPORT ON THE POLYCH^TA. 



PART I. 

 I. INTRODUCTION. 



AT the request of the Curator of the Australian Museum, 

 Mr. R. Etheridge (acting for the Hon. the Minister for Trade 

 and Customs), I undertook the examination of the series 

 of Polychseta which were dredged by the Federal Investi- 

 gation Ship " Endeavour," chiefly off the east coast of Tas- 

 mania and the southern and eastern coasts of Australia. 

 Owing to my University duties, I have only a few months 

 in the summer available for research work of a continuous 

 character, so that it has only been possible to work through 

 about two-thirds of the material. Hence any general sum- 

 mary of the results must stand over till the publication of 

 the second part. 



Our knowledge of the Polychseta of the Australian seas 

 is very meagre. We know something of those occurring in 

 Port Jackson from the work of Professor W. A. Has well, 1 

 published a good many years ago in a series of papers in the 

 " Proceedings of the Liimean Society of New South Wales." 

 He includes an account of several of the species which had 

 been previously described by Schmarda 2 , who collected in 

 this region and elsewhere, and by other early zoologists as 

 Baird. Kinberg and de Quatrefages, each of whom had 

 described one or more species which had been incidentally 

 and occasionally collected by early voyagers or collectors. 



As to the worms from deeper water, our knowledge is 

 confined to what is recorded in that monumental volume in 

 the series of " Challenger ' Reports by Professor W. C. 

 M'Intosh. 3 



It may be well to give this list of worms obtained during 

 that voyage. 



Station 158, considerably south of Australia, Lat. 50 

 1' S., Long. 123 4' E., 1800 fathoms ; Globigerina ooze. 



Hyalinoecia bentkaliana, M'Intosh. 

 Grubianella antarctica, M'Intosh. 



1. Haswell Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, iii., 1879 ; Id., Ibid., vii., 1883 ' 

 Id., Ibid., ix.. 1885; Id., Ibid., x., 18815; Id., Ibid., (2), vi., 1892. 



2. Schmarda Neue Wirbellose Thiere, 1861. 



3. M'Intosh Chall. Rep., Zool., xii., 1885. 



