ECHIURIDAE 247 



Distribution. Chile: Miiller, loc. cit. 



Chile: Punta Arenas, Magellan Straits: Baird, Fischer, loc. cit. 

 Chile: coast near Tumbes (I presume this is the town about 20 miles north of 

 Conception), Seitz, loc. cit. 



Occurrence. Off Patagonia: St. WS 777. 98-99 m. 



One specimen approximately 140 mm. in length was taken off Patagonia. While the 

 species has been recorded on several occasions from the eastern side of the Continent, 

 this is the first record from the Atlantic coast. 



The animal had the body wall damaged in places. The papillae on approximately 

 the last 2 cm. of the body were higher than those in the middle. The same was true of 

 the area just behind the introvert. There for a depth of about 1-5 cm. the papillae were 

 higher than in the middle of the body and gave the skin a scaly appearance. There were 

 ten anal bristles, irregularly spaced. The three pairs of segmental organs were all very 

 long and reached to within about 2 cm. of the posterior end of the body. The first two 

 pairs were very much swollen, the largest having a maximum diameter of about 8 mm. 

 The third pair were merely long thin tubes. 



Genus Thalassema Lamarck 



The only species belonging to this group so far reported from the Antarctic is 

 Thalassema verrucosiim described by Studer (1879, p. 124) from Kerguelen. So far as 

 the family itself is concerned, it is mainly a tropical one and few species have been 

 found in the colder seas. The collections of these animals brought back by the ' Dis- 

 covery ' is therefore of special interest, since six individuals belonging to two species 

 hitherto unrecorded in the Antarctic were secured. A further point of interest is that 

 one of these species is a well-known Arctic form. Both the stations at which they were 

 found were from fairly deep water. 



3. Thalassema faex Selenka. Plate VII, fig. 2. 

 Distribution. Arctic seas off Norway, etc. 

 Occurrence. South Shetlands: St. 172. 525 m. 



Three specimens were secured. Two were complete and the third was fragmentary. 

 All were strongly contracted. 



The introvert was small in comparison with the length of the body. In the two 

 complete specimens the bodies were 45 and 20 mm. and the respective introverts 5 and 

 4 mm. When fully expanded the introvert may be longer. The skin was white with 

 only a few indistinct papillae. The digestive tract was filled with black rock fragments 

 of all sizes from fine grains to fragments about 2 mm. in length. This dark mass showed 

 distinctly through the skin. The longitudinal muscles were continuous. There was only 

 a single pair of nephridia, white in colour, and containing a few large round ova. The 

 specimens seem to correspond closely to the northern species and to be idenfified 

 with it. 



