Art. III.—Note on the Occurrence of the Genus Balanoglossus in New Zealand Waters.

By Professor Benham, D.Sc., M.A., F.Z.S.

[Read before the Otago Institute, 12th September, 1899.]

Although an account of this new species of Balanoglossus has already been published in England,^* it appears to be of sufficient interest to record its occurrence in a journal of wider distribution in New Zealand, since it is the first-recorded representative in our waters of a class of animals of considerable zoological interest. The genus Balanoglossus, together with a few other similar worm-like animals, constitutes a group of animals which is closely associated with the ancestors of the great vertebrate class, and nearly allied to the sea-squirts, or Ascidians, and to the Lancelets

This group of worm-like creatures is known to zoologists as Enteropneusta, or Hemichorda, and of this group only one species has hitherto been recorded from Australasian waters. A few years back (1893) a species—Ptychodera australiensis—was discovered by Mr. Hill, and the anatomy fully described.^† But the type genus, Balanoglossus, had not been recorded from any part of the Southern Hemisphere till the discovery by Mr. Hamilton of the subject of the present note.

We were pottering about the Otago Harbour, at Port Chalmers, in February, 1899, doing a little collecting, when Mr. Hamilton observed a small red worm creeping along a piece of kelp. He passed it over to me for examination, and on placing it in a bottle of water I was surprised and delighted to find that it was an Enteropneustic worm. Shortly afterwards we obtained a second and smaller worm, of a more orange colour. On returning to my laboratory I lost no time in submitting the worm, to careful examination, with the result that I discovered it to be a new species of the genus Balanoglossus, to which I have given the name B. otagoensis.

It may not be amiss to give a brief account of the external features of the worm, and to ask any member who is interested in natural history to keep a look out for it, and on finding it to place it, as soon as possible, in alcohol or other suitable preservative, and to forward it to me.

The specimen was a mature female, coloured rich carmine-red, the anterior end having the deepest tint. The entire length of the animal when extended crawling is but 1 ⅕ in.—quite a