336 OX A COLLECTION OF ECHIURIDS, WITH AX ATTEMPT TO 



The single nephridiuni was on the right side' and was full of ova; other eggs in 

 an equally advanced state lay in the coelom. 



The eggs contaiued large oil globules, 6 or 8 arranged more or less in a ring 

 round the circumference, giving the more opaque protoplasm somewhat the appearance 

 of a star. 



Neither in the nephridium nor in the oesophagus did I succeed in finding any males. 



Locality. Lifu, Loyalty Islands. 



II. Genus. THALASSEMA (Gaertner), Lamarck. 



2. Thalassema baronii, Greef. 



Four specimens from Sandal Bay, Lifu, Loyalty Islands, and one from China 

 Straits, British Xew Guinea. They were in a very contracted condition, and almost 

 as broad as long. The largest measured, with the proboscis, rather over 3 cm. in length, 

 the smallest had an inclusive length of 2 cm. (Figs. 1 and 7, Plate XXXIII.) The number 

 of longitudinal muscle-bands is 17 or 18 1 in the largest specimen which I opened. Of 

 the four nephridia, three were much distended and full of eggs, the left anterior 

 nephridium contained no ova and was of small size. The ova are spherical. In his 

 Monograph, Greef states, " Weibchen...bisher nicht beobachtet," so that it is interesting to 

 confirm his surmise that the female resembles the male in colour, size and organisation. 



Dr Willey characterises this species when alive as "compact, opaque and warty." 



3. Thalassemia diaphanes. Sluiter. 



One specimen. The body and the proboscis are both strongly curved, so that the 

 whole animal resembled the figure 3. The length of the body is about 3 cm. ; when 

 straightened, its diameter, w T hich is very uniform, is about 7 mm., and the length of the 

 proboscis is a little over 25 cm. (Fig. 2, Plate XXXIII.) 



The papillae, not all of one size, are closely aggregated round the anterior end 

 of the body, they become more sparse towards the middle, and, except on the inner 

 edge of the curved body, they almost disappear on the posterior half, with the exception 

 of the extreme posterior end, where they are large. 



The skin in the spirit specimen is of a dirty brown colour and fairly transparent, 

 except where the papillae are most closely si i. 



I have no doubt that this specimen is of the same species as Sluiter's Th. 

 diaphanes. Its proboscis, however, is not truncated, but roundly pointed, and the ali- 

 mentary canal was filled with irregular blocks of coral rock, not with pellets of mud. 



1 Fischer (Abh. Ver. Hamburg. Vol. sm. 1S95, p. 1) has re-investigated Greef's original specimen of the 

 Tli. baronii and has determined the number of longitudinal bands of muscle to be 18 — 19, the same number 

 that Greef indicates in his figure. Lampert by some inadvertence gives the number at 23, and this number 

 is copied by Eietsch. 



