128 A. E. SHIPLEY. 
Locality. Maduwari, 8. Mahlos Atoll, Maldive Islands; found in the lagoon reef but 
never seen elsewhere in the Group. It is a widely distributed species, occurring in the 
Mediterranean and Adriatic and off Norway. Dr Willey collected it at the Loyalty Islands 
and saw specimens of it in the D’Entrecasteaux Group. It also oceurs off the Australian 
and British New Guinea coasts. 
Il. Genus THALASSEMA (Gaertner) Lamarck. 
2. Thalassema diaphanes Sluiter. (Plate VI, fig. 2.) 
Shipley. Willey’s Zoological Results, Part 11. 1899, pp. 336 and 346. 
A single specimen, 2°5 cm. long, from Hulule. Greatest breadth 8mm. The animal 
was curved and the skin of the outer curvature was remarkably thin. The contents of the 
alimentary canal was in very obvious pellets, as is usually the case in this species. Another 
bottle containing three specimens from the same locality was labelled “in Halimeda masses.” 
Two specimens, one very small, were taken at Minikoi. The smaller was taken “from lagoon 
sand between the roots of a branching Porites,’ the larger from “sand under stones of reef- 
flat”; when living this specimen had a proboscis, which when expanded reached a length of 
27 cm. and its body was nearly as long. 
Locality. Hulule, Maldive Islands and Minikoi, Laccadive Islands. This species has 
previously been described from the Bay of Batavia and from off Pigeons’ Island, New Britain. 
As this is the first mention of Hulule I insert here a note drawn up on the spot 
by Mr Stanley Gardiner on the Echiuroids of that locality :— 
“Thalassema alone occurs. There seem to be three species, which live in and under 
the stones of the boulder zone, east and west. A fourth small species—perhaps different— 
light green colour, rather transparent (Zhalassema diaphanes A. KE. S.)—is found in Halimeda 
masses, but otherwise we have not found any except in the above positions. They are 
far more numerous to the east. The two specimens of the large species (Thalassema 
erythrogrammon A. E. S.) were obtained under a large stone on sand, close to inside of 
boulder zone to east. They live quite well for 20 to 30 hours in water in a covered 
basin, and kill best for museum purposes by very slowly adding dilute Chromic Acid, 
Alcohol sooner or later causes collapse, however slowly the anaesthesia is performed.” 
3. Thalassema erythrogrammon Max Miiller. (Plate VI, fig. 1.) 
Shipley. Willey’s Zoological Results, Part 11. 1899, p. 347. 
A single, very large specimen whose dimensions, judging from a life-size sketch made 
by Mr C. Forster Cooper of the living animal, were:—length of body 39 cm., length of 
proboscis 11 cm., greatest width of body 4cm. The posterior end of the body, which is 
very rugged and pitted, extended some 4 cm. from the extreme end. The specimen 
preserved in spirit which reached my hands had contracted to about one quarter of the 
above length. The proboscis, which was extremely contracted and had broken off the body, 
was but 3 cm. long, and was all bunched up like an acorn in outline. 
