Reencontro de Balanoglossus gigas Fr. Muller no litoral brasileiro

re-finding of balanoglossus gigas fr. muuller on the brasilian sea shore. balanoglossus gigas, the giant enteropneusta, has been described for the first time by fritz muller in his notes collected and published by dr. hermann von ihering (1898, pg. 35). fr. muller found the balanoglossus on the coats of the state of santa catarina in 1884. once again in 1885 several specimens of that animal were captured by fr. muller in the same place. since that time up to now no references on the occurrence of this animal have been found in the zoological bibliography. during the spring of 1948 prof. w. besnard, director of he instituto paulista de oceanografia saw some signals indicating the existence of balanoglossus at the beach of s？o sebasti？o, state of s？o paulo. from 1948 to now several attempts have been made to catch the animal alive and complete. on the last september during a shorts visit to the beach of s？o sebasti？o one balanoglossus was captured and brought to the department of general and animal physiology in good conditions. the animal measured 1.80 m in length. it seems to be the largest balanoglossus known. according to the descriptions of spengel (1893, pg. 158), and van der horst (1939) pg. 717) it was possible to identify this enteropneusta as balanoglossus gigas fr. muller, refound at the brazilian coast sixty six years after its discovery by fr. müller.