The echiuroid material was collected during the Galathea Expedition and amounts to 65 specimens, obtained from 14 stations. Owing to the poor preservation of the material, especially sf the internal organs, the description of the examined samples cannot be regarded as exhaustive. In most cases the probosces have proved to be partially or fully absent and the vascular system and the anal glands have not bee11 preserved; this frequently refers also to the nephridial system. However, some of the preserved features have permitted the establishment of 2 new genera and species (Bruunellia bandae and Torbenwolffia galatheae and the refinding of 3 previously described species. In addition, 4 specimens are provisionally referred to the genus Alomasoma, 13 specimens to the genus Jakobia, and 1 specimen to the genus Vitjazema. The two latter genera were described by the author from the ultra-abyssal (hadal) part of the Kurile-Kamchatka Trench. Thus far our knowledge on the abyssal Echiuroidea is inadequate for systematic and zoogeographic generalizations. Male parasitism in the family Bonelliidae may be regarded as a result of adaptative adjustment to life in the oceanic depths and the entire family may be regarded as one of the most typical groups of the abyssal and hadal (ultra-abyssal) faunas.
Abyssal, Deep-Sea
Systematics, Taxonomy
Zoogeography, Biogeography (generalities), Geographic distribution
