252 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



Falkland Islands: St. WS 85. 79 m. One medium-sized specimen. 



St. WS 225. 161-162 m. One medium-sized specimen. 



St. WS 248. 210-242 m. One medium-sized specimen. 



St. WS 250. 251-313 m. One medium-sized specimen. 

 South Georgia: St. MS 27. 200 m. Two medium-sized specimens. 



St. MS 74. 22-40 m. One small specimen. 



St. 27. no m. One very small specimen. 



St. 45. 238-270 m. One medium-sized specimen, one small. 



St. 141. 17-27 m. Three medium-sized specimens. 



Ross Sea: St. 1645. 475 m. Four large specimens. 



St. 1647. 420 m. One medium-sized specimen. 



St. 1 65 1. 594 m. One small specimen. 



St. 1653. 485 m. One large specimen. 



St. 1660. 351 m. One medium-sized specimen. 



This species is one of the commonest and best known Antarctic forms. It appears to 

 be subject to very considerable variation. As the synonymy show^s, several varieties and 

 even species have been described which later have been rejected and linked with this 

 species. Variation seems greatest in the very large and, presumably, old individuals 

 and seems to follow the same general trend in both hemispheres. Varieties hanseni and 

 trybomi, previously described from Arctic waters, have now been taken in the Antarctic 

 and, conversely, the variety antarcticiim, described from South Georgia, has been 

 recorded by Sato (1939, p. 409) from Japanese waters. The large animals from Sts. 

 1647, 1653 and 1660 from the Ross Sea do not, at first sight, suggest this species. On 

 the balance of characters, however, it has been considered right to regard them as old 

 individuals of this species, possibly considerably aft'ected by the nature of the habitat. 



The specimens from the Ross Sea were mostly very large animals and showed a good 

 deal of variation in the thickness and appearance of the body wall. The animals from 

 Sts. 1647 and 1660 were most alike in appearance. That from St. 1660 was contracted 

 into a short cylinder and the body measured 24 mm. The body wall was thin and 

 transparent so that the closely coiled gut showed through. The specimen from St. 1647 

 was expanded and measured 125 mm. overall and had the usual pearl grey colour. 



The specimen from St. 1653 was peculiar in appearance. It was contracted and 

 measured 150 mm. overall. The anterior part of the body was yellow in colour and very 

 firm in texture. The rest of the animal was dirty grey in colour and the skin was very 

 thin so that the gut was quite visible. The animal had the appearance of having been 

 living in a tube or in very dense clay soil. The animal from St. 1651 was of medium 

 size. As in the preceding specimen, it was yellow anteriorly but the body was firm and 

 uniform throughout. The four specimens from St. 1645 were dissimilar in appearance. 

 Two were pearly grey in appearance and resembled those from St. 1647. The two other 

 animals were dirty grey in colour with a good deal of black deposit on them. The skin 

 was very rough and corky in appearance. All specimens were damaged so that measure- 

 ments could not be given, but they were all very large. Although so very different in 

 appearance, the specimens seemed all to belong to this species. In most specimens the 

 typical criss-cross markings of the skin were seen. The chief difference noted was that 



