1919.] B. Prashad : Echiuroids from Chandipore. 399 



northern parts of the west coast. Mr. Kemp found both 

 on the coast of Portuguese India. 



NOTES ON ECHIUROIDS FROM CHANDIPORE, 



ORISSA. 



By B. Prashad, D.Sc. 



In May 1919, Dr. F. H. Gravely obtained two specimens of 

 Echiuroids from the mud-flats at Chandipore on the coast of the 

 Bay of Bengal. The two specimens belong to the genus Thalassema, 

 Gaertner, and are referable to two distinct species. One of the 

 specimens is without the proboscis and so it is impossible to assign 

 it to its species with any great certainty, but it bears in general 

 shape and anatomy a very close resemblance to T. branchior- 

 hynchus, Annandale and Kemp/ which was collected previously 

 by Dr. Gravely at the same locality in fairly large numbers. The 

 other specimen cannot be assigned to any previously known species 

 and is described as a new one. This species is very important 

 from a biological point of view, and affords an interesting example 

 of the occurrence under essentially similar biological conditions 

 of animals with exactly opposite types of apparently adaptive 

 characters. 



Thalassema branchiorhynchus, Annandale and Kemp. 



1915. Tlialassema branchiorhynchus, Annandale and Kemp, Mem. hid. 



Mus., V, p. 61, figs, 2, 3. 

 1919. Thalassema byaiic/iiorlij/i/chiis, Prashad, Mem, As. Soc. Bengal, VI, 



P- 324- 



I assign the specimen without the proboscis to this species 

 with some hesitation, because the most characteristic feature of the 

 species — the proboscis — is absent. In the position of the proboscis 

 a semicircular scar is to be seen, and from this it appears that the 

 proboscis must have been cast off long ago, for the scar is quite 

 healed up, and there is no trace of the openings of the vascular 

 sinuses. 



The specimen is preserved in an expanded condition, and is 

 an elongated sickle-shaped organism much more pointed at the 

 posterior than at the anterior end. The length is 31 mm. and the 

 maximum breadth only 5 mm. The arrangement of the integu- 

 mentary papillae is very similar to that described for the type- 

 specimen. The general anatomy also is identical. 



Thalassema microrhynchus, sp. nov. 



There is a single specimen of this species from the same 

 locality as the preceding one. Preserved in an expanded condition, 



' Mem. Ind. Mtis., V, p. 61 (1915). 



