6 
AUSTRALASIAN ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 
ORDER PRIAPULOIDEA. 
Priapulus Lamarck. 
Priapulus caudatus var. tuberculato-spinosus Baird. 
P. caudatus Lamarck (1801), p. 467. 
P. tuberculato-spinosus Baird (1868), p. 106, pi. XI, fig. 2. 
P. tuberculato-spinosus de Guerne (1888), p. 9. 
P. caudatus var. antarcticus Micfiaelsen (1889), p. 10, fig. 3. 
P. caudatus var. antarcticus Fischer (1896), p. 6 (1914A), p. 22, fig. 12. 
P. caudatus Shipley (1902), p. 284. • 
P. caudatus forma tuberculato-spinosus Theel (1911), p. 18, pi. I, figs. 1-12. 
P. caudatus Benham (1916). 
Three individuals were included in the collection forwarded to me. Two of these 
were obtained at Commonwealth Bay in 3 fathoms of water, and one had been removed 
from the stomach of the fish Zanclorhynchus spinifer Gunther, caught near Macquarie 
Island (Waite). This is a new habitat for the Priapulid. 
The specimen is soft and appears to show signs of the commencement of digestion. 
It is rather larger than the one from Commonwealth Bay, and shows the branching 
of the gills. 
Of the Commonwealth Bay specimens, the larger has a total length of 35 mm., 
of which the introvert occupies 8 mm. and the caudal appendages 6 mm. So that the 
body itself is 21 mm. in length. It is 7*5 mm. in diameter, while the introvert is 10 mm. 
The smaller individual measures only 10 mm. by 3 mm. The larger is a very 
pale brown, or perhaps dirty white, in colour with a slight greenish tinge. The gills 
are much contracted, so as to be short rounded lobes; some are distended into oval 
bladders; all are crowded together, so as to conceal the tail. 
The preanal ring of papillae presents but a slight “ gap,” much less noticeable 
than that shown in Michaelsen’s figure, which may perhaps be due to the fact that 
this specimen is strongly contracted. In the smaller specimen the “ gap,” indeed, is 
not recognisable. But, as Theel has shown (1911), the presence of this gap has not 
the value that Michaelsen assumed, as the northern form also presents it. The real 
distinction between the typical species and this southern variety lies in the form of the 
teeth at the entrance to the introvert, which are so admirably illustrated by Theel 
in the above memoir, in which there is a full discussion on the differences. 
Localities .— 
Commonwealth Bay, Boat Harbour, 3 fathoms (two). 
Macquarie Island (stomach of fish). 
Distribution.— South Georgia (Midi.); Tierra del Fuego (Fischer); Cape Adare 
(Shipley); St. of Magellan, Falkland Islands (Baird, de Guerne) Graham 
Land Region (Theel). 
