270 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Ampbioxus 1 was first discovered off the coast of Corn- 

 wall in 1774, b}' Pallas, wbo, though recognising its 

 fish-like characters, described it as a mollusc under the 

 name Limcuc lanceolatus. Sixty years later, 1834, it was 

 re-discovered by Costa in the Mediterranean near Naples, 

 since so famous as the home of Ampbioxus. Costa 

 thought lie had found a new animal and named it 

 Branchiostoma lubricum, taking the generic name from the 

 oral cirri which lie mistook for gills. Two years later 

 Yarrell 2 found it again in the Mediterranean and not 

 knowing of Costa's work, but being acquainted with 

 Pallas' description, he re-named it Amphioxus lanceolatus, 

 retaining Pallas' specific name but changing that of the 

 genus, since Limax was already used for a genus of 

 molluscs. According to the rules of nomenclature, 

 Costa's generic name must take precedence. Eence, 

 although popularly known as Amphioxus, the correct 

 generic name should be Branchiostoma. Gray recognised 

 this in 1847 3 when he described a new species from 

 Borneo as Branchiostoma belcheri. His description of 

 this new species is most vague and unsatisfactory; the 

 reasons for separating it from 11. lanceolaium are nol at all 

 clear, and, in fact, the author does not seem to be at all 

 certain that it is a new species. In 1851 i Gray compared 

 this new species with specimens from Cornwall and the 

 Mediterranean and concluded that all three were distinct 

 species. The Mediterranean form he called B. lubricum, 

 that from Cornwall 11. hnucoUthnn, and his new one from 

 Borneo //. belcheri. In 1852 Sundevall 5 added a new 

 species from Peru under the name H. elongatum and at 



1 1 use " Amphioxus " as a colloquial term for all members of the group. 

 <; British Fishes." 1836. 8 P.Z.S. 1847. 



'Cat. Brit. Mus. Fish. Vol. vii. 1861. 

 Ofvers. Vet. Akad. Forhn. Vol. ix. 1852. 



