386 AUSTRALIAN FREE-LIVING MARINE NEMATODES, 



clearly to l)e seen. Thence the food passes through the small 

 cardia into the intestine. This latter is one-half as wide as the 

 body and composed of cells closely packed with granules. The 

 ventral gland is situated in front of the cardiac collum; its duct 

 is narrow, the ampulla being sub-spherical and one thii'd as wide 

 as the neck. The excretory pore is situated just in front of the 

 somewhat oblique nerve-ring. The lateral fields are only one- 

 fifth as wide as the body. The tail is setaceous onward from its 

 conoid anterior fourth. The slightly expanded terminus gives 

 exit to the secretion of the caudal glands. The depressed vulva 

 leads to a vagina one-half as long as the body is wide. The eggs 

 are a little more than one-half as wide as the body and are three 

 times as long as wide. The broad, reflexed part of the ovaries 

 reach two-thirds to three-fourths the way back to the vulva and 

 contain numerous developing ova arranged in several rows. 



Found in sand near low-tide mark, Port Jackson, New South 

 Wales, Australia. 



CoMESOMA, Bastian. 



CoMESOMA HETERURA, n.sp. It is barely possible that this 

 species is not a Comesoma, for while the head is precisely like 

 that of Comesoma, the spicula are decidedly different; however, 

 we have Oncholaimi with short spicula and also with setaceous 

 spicula, and why should not the same occur in Comesoma ? I 

 have not seen the female. 



•2 0-6 10- — M— ^° 87- 



•8 2 -3 3^ 37 2^ 2-26 mm. "jj^g thickish striated cuticle is 

 closely and finely punctate, but not so finely as in C. similis. 

 Short hairs occur on the body. The conoid neck ends in a sub- 

 truncate head bearing, nearly opposite the base of the pharynx, four 

 spreading submedian setae and two short papilla- like lateral ones; the 

 submedian ones are one-half as long as the diameter of the head. 

 I could not ascertain whether or not the three flat and obscure 

 lips bore papillae; none but very small and inconspicuous papillae 

 could have escaped the scrutiny. The anterior margin of each 

 lateral organ is as far behind the base of the pharynx as the 



