140 
been worked out in the course of a few years. I beg the New 
Zealand Government and my New Zealand Colleagues to accept 
these contributions to the knowledge of the biology of the New 
Zealand seas as a tribute for the hospitality shown me. 
The history of the Echinoderm fauna of New Zealand is rather 
intricate. Old collections in various Museums of Europe and Ame¬ 
rica from the time when the importance of exact indications of 
locality had not yet been realized have occasioned many statements 
of species erroneously said to come from New Zealand. This applies 
especially to the sea-urchins, whose dried tests are often brought 
home by sailors a. o. people and then, furnished with unreliable 
labels, end in the Museums, where they give rise to wrong zoo- 
geographical statements. 
Erroneous identifications, partly due to insufficient access to 
litterature, have caused several other instances of species being 
wrongly reckoned to the New Zealand fauna. A critical examin- 
ation of the previous lists of New Zealand Echinoderms therefore 
leads to some remarkable results and makes the revised list differ 
very conspicuously from the earlier ones. It is, however, only fair 
to emphasize that the different aspect of the lists is due partly to 
necessary nomenclatural changes. 
The first list of New Zealand Echinoderms was given by Hut- 
ton in his „Catalogue of the Echinodermata of New Zealand* 
1872. He names the following 9 species of Echinoids: 
Cidaris ( Slephanocidaris ) tubaria Lam. 
Echinus ( Psammechinus ) chloroticus A. Ag. 
Echinus elevatus n. sp. 
Echinus albocinctus n. sp. 
Laganum rostratum Ag. 
Årachnoides zelandiæ Gray. 
Echinoneus ventricosus Ag. & Des. 
Echinobrissus recens M. Edw. 
Amphidotus zealandiæ Gray. 
