120 Transactions. — Zoology. 



LABRIM2. 



Pison morosus, Sm. 

 Pison pruinosus, Cam. 

 Tachytes sericops, Sm. 



CBABBONID^. 



Bhopalum perforatum, Sm. 



FOBMIGIML 



Aphenogaster antarctica, Sm. 



Huberia striata, Sm. 



Prenolepis longicomis, F. Not hitherto recorded from New 

 Zealand. Tt is now practically of universal distribution in the 

 warmer parts of the world. 



Monomorium nitidum, Sm. 



Ponera castanea, Sm., Mavr. 



Art. VI. — On the New Zealand Lancelet. 



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

 Biology in the University of Otago. 



[Read before the Otago Institute, 13th November, 1900.] 



Plate I. 



Some years ago a couple of specimens of a lancelet were 

 collected on the east coast of the North Island, and have 

 since been deposited in the Colonial Museum. They were 

 described by Captain Hutton in his " Fishes of New Zea- 

 land," published in 1872 by the Colonial Museum and Geo- 

 logical Survey Department, under the title " Br anclvio stoma 

 lanceolatum, Yarrell." 



At that period, and for many years subsequent to that 

 date, all lancelets were regarded as belonging to one and the 

 same species, and were known usually as " Amphioxus," more 

 properly as " Branchio stoma." But as material has been 

 accumulated from various seas, and examined and compared 

 with care, it has become evident that at least three subgenera 

 must be erected for the ten well-characterized species — viz., 

 Branchiostoma, Asymmetron (Andrews, 1893), from the Baha- 

 mas, and Hcteropleuron (Kirkcaldy, 1895*) ; the last being 

 characterized by the one-sidedness of certain structures — viz., 

 the genital glands exist oil the right side only, and the right 



* Quart. Journ. Mic. Sci., xxvii., p. 303. 



