Benham. — Oil the Occurrence of Balanoglossus. 9 



Art. III. — Note on the Occurrence of the Genus Balano- 

 glossus in Netv Zealand Waters. 



By Professor Benham, D.Sc, M.A., F.Z.S. 



[Read before the Otago Institute, 12th September, 1899.] 



Although an account of this new species of Balanoglossus 

 has already been published in England,* it appears to be of 

 sufficient inlerest to record its occurrence in a journal of 

 wider distribution in New Zealand, since it is the first-re- 

 corded representative in our waters of a class of animals of 

 considerable zoological interest. The genus Balanoglossiis, 

 together with a few other similar worm-like animals, consti- 

 tutes a group of animals which is closely associated with the 

 ancestors of the great vertebrate class, and nearly allied to 

 the sea-squirts, or Ascidians, and to the Lancelets. 



This group of worm-like creatures is known to zoologists 

 as Euterojmcusta, or Hemichorda, and of this group only one 

 species has hitherto been recorded from Australasian waters. 

 A few years back (1893) a species — Ptychodera auatraliensis — 

 was discovered by Mr. Hill, and the anatomy fully described.! 

 But the type genus, Balanoglossus, had not been recorded 

 from any part of the Southern Hemisphere till the discovery 

 by Mr. Hamilton of the subject of the present note. 



We were pottering about the Otago Harbour, at Port 

 Chalmers, in February, 1899, doing a little collecting, when 

 Mr. Hamilton observed a small red worm creeping along a 

 piece of kelp. He passed it over to me for examination, and 

 on placing it in a bottle of water I was surprised and delighted 

 to find that it was an Enteropneustic worm. Shortly after- 

 wards we obtained a second and smaller worm, of a more 

 orange colour. On returning to my laboratory I lost no time 

 in submitting the worm to careful examination, with the re- 

 sult that I discovered it to be a new species of the genus 

 Balanoglossus, to which I have given the name B. otagoensis. 



It may not be amiss to give a brief account of the external 

 features of the worm, and to ask any member who is interested 

 in natural history to keep a look out for it, and on finding it 

 to place it, as soon as possible, in alcohol or other suitable 

 preservative, and to forward it to me. 



The specimen was a mature female, coloured rich carmine- 

 red, the anterior end having the deepest tint. The entire length 

 of the animal when extended crawling is but li in. — quite a 



* " Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science," xlii., 1899. 

 t T. P. Hill, Proe. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., 1895. 



