BY VERA A. IRWIN-SMITH. 759 



of tlieir organisation and life-history. Scbepotieff's papers (7-8) 

 deal with what he terms "The Nematoid representatives of the 

 microscopic fauna of the rocky sea-bottom/' including, in this 

 term, the Desmoscolecidce, Echinoderidce^ ChcEtosoma, Rhabdogaste7\ 

 and Trichoderma. His description is based on collections made 

 on the coasts of the Adriatic, the Gulf of Naples, and the fjords 

 of Norway. In the latter place, he had made extensive dredg- 

 ingson a submarine reef running across the Byfjord near Bergen, 

 and obtained Cluplosoma in large numbers in the coast-zone (10- 

 15 metres), in the years 1903 and 1905. 



In his first paper(7), he gives a brief description of the external 

 features only, explaining that the internal organisation is very 

 difficult to investigate, owing to the strong development of the 

 external cuticle, and its impenetrability to reagents, A year 

 later, 1908, he published a fuller account (8), including in it ob- 

 servations on the internal anatomy made by means of transverse 

 sections of a single species, CJutlosoma lott giro strum. This, ap- 

 parently, was the first time a successful attempt had been made 

 to section the worm. But the drawings are lacking in detail, 

 and a much fuller description is required to complete our know- 

 ledge of the anatomy of this group. As yet, too, no work at all 

 has been done on the life-history. 



Until 1914, the ChcetosomatidcE were not known to occur out- 

 side the waters of the North Atlantic and Mediterranean Seas, 

 though Schepotieff expresses the opinion that they are cosmo- 

 politan, and belong to the most numerous and most typical re- 

 presentatives of the microscopic fauna of the rocky sea-bottom. 

 In that year. Professoi- Haswell found a few individuals of two 

 new species in Port Jackson, N.S.^^'.; and, some time later, he 

 drew my attention to them. 



I)uring the past year, I have collected and examined specimens 

 of these, and two additional species from the sea-shore in the 

 vicinity of Sydney. The present paper is a record of that work, 

 and an attempt to follow Greef 's advice i3), and give as complete 

 an account as possible of tije anatomy of these curious, little 

 creatures. 



