BALANOGLOSSUS OTAGOJilNSlS. 497 



Balanoglossus otagoensis, n. sp. 



By 



W. BlaxlaiKl Beiiliaiii, D.Sc, M.A., 



Professor of Biology iu the Uuiversity of Olago, New Zealand. 



With Plate 45. 



HiTHEKTO no example of the Heniichorda has been re- 

 corded from New Zealand; and, indeed, it is only quite 

 recently that any member of the group has been demon- 

 strated to occur on the shores of Australasia. In 1893, 

 Mr. T. P. Hill,^ of Sydney University, recorded the capture of 

 a specimen of Ptychodera Australiensis, of which he gave 

 a detailed account in 1895. But the genus Balanoglossus 

 has hitherto not been discovered in the Southern Hemisphere 

 (fide Spengel, 1893), hence the species about to be described 

 gains in interest. 



On February 16th of the present year, Mr. Hamilton, the 

 Registrar of the University, accompanied nie on a short collect- 

 ing expedition to the Otago Harbour at Port Chalmers ; we 

 were examining, in a boat, seaweeds, &c., from a depth of 

 about one fathom, close inshore, which here descends abruptly 

 into the sea to about this depth ; while overhauling a piece of 

 great kelp, Macrocystis, we observed a bright red worm 

 creeping along the stem. At first I thought it a Nemertine, till 1 

 had placed it in a bottle of water, when I was delighted to find 

 it to be an Enteropneust. A few minutes afterwards we obtained 

 a second specimen, smaller, and of an orange tint, which 



» ' Proc. Linn. Soc, N.S.W.,' 1895. 



