JOTTINGS FROM THE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY 

 OF SYDNEY UNIVERSITY. 



By William A. Haswell, M.A., B.Sc, F.L.S. 

 Lecturer on Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, ifec. 



4. An Australian Species of Bonellia. 



About a year ago Dr. R. von Lendenfelcl and myself discovered 

 on the shores of Neutral Bay, Port Jackson, several specimens of a 

 species of Bonellia. Instead of inhabiting, like its European 

 congener, narrow fissures in rocks, from which the soft-bodied 

 animal can only be extracted entire by the exercise of extreme 

 care, these species were found under small stones just about the 

 limit of low water. I had on numerous occasions previously gone 

 over the very same ground on the out look for various invertebrates 

 without ever having seen a trace of this remarkable creature ; and 

 Dr. Lendenfeld informs me that he has very frequently visited the 

 same spot since, and has hunted carefully for the Bonellia, but has 

 never found any. A few weeks ago, however, on revisiting the 

 spot I found several specimens apparently under the very same 

 stones. 



On a careful comparison of the specimens with a specimen of 

 Bonellia vividis from Naples in the type collection of the University, 

 and with the description and figures of Lucaze-Duthiers (1), I can 

 find nothing in the external appearance — the colour, form of the 

 body, shape and size of the bifurcated tentacle — to distinguish 

 the Australian species from the European one, and the same 

 result follows an examination of most of the internal organs : 

 the alimentary canal, branched appendages and the nervous 



(1) " Recherches sur la Bonellie," Ann. Sc. Nat., 1858. 



