[CEYLON PEAEL OYSTER FISHERIES 1903- SUPPLEMENTARY REPORTS, No. VI.] 



REPORT 



ON THK 



CEPHALOCHORDA 



COLLECTED BY 



Professor HERDMAN, at CEYLON, in 1902. 



BY 



WALTER M. TATTERS ALL, B.Sc, 



SCHOLAR IN ZOOLOGY OF VICTORIA UNIVERSITY. 



[With ONE PLATE.] 



INTRODUCTION. 



The collection of Acraniates made by Professor Herdman during his recent expedition 

 to Ceylon was kindly placed in my hands for examination during my year of post- 

 graduate research work at University College, Liverpool. I here wish to express my 

 thanks to Professor Herdman for giving me the opportunity of examining this most 

 interesting series, and also for the ever-willing and kindly help which he has given 

 me in the discussion of literature and other difficulties. The collection was a most 

 interesting one, and comprised in all 98 specimens, 92 obtained by dredging and 

 6 taken in the surface tow-net. They were collected for the most part in the shallower 

 waters round Ceylon between February 1st and April 1st, 1902 ; and as the 

 specimens belong to no fewer than seven usually recognised species, they serve to 

 indicate the richness of the Acraniate fauna of the Ceylon seas. 



The previous knowledge of the Cephalochorda of the Ceylon coast is very scanty. 

 Andrews (3),* in Appendix I. to his paper on Asymmetron, notes Branchiostonni 

 lanceolatum as doubtfully known to him from Ceylon. In Appendix II. to the same 

 paper, in which the Lancelets of the Smithsonian Museum are enumerated, bottle 

 34,003 is labelled " Amphioxus sp. , 5 soft specimens from Ceylon." Miss Kirkaldy (6) 

 examined these specimens later and found that four belonged to a new species, which 

 she named A. cingcdense. The other one she placed provisionally and doubtfully in 



* The numbers in brackets refer to the List of Literature cited on p. 226, 



2 E 



