THE BRYOZOA OF THE WOODS HOLE REGION. 



j* 



By RAYMOND C. OSBURN, Ph. D., 



Assistant Professor of Zoology, Columbia University, 

 Assistant Director, New York Aquarium. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The report on the Bryozoa ( = Polyzoa) of the Woods Hole region, presented in the 

 following pages, has grown out of the work of the survey of this region, which has 

 been conducted by the United States Bureau of Fisheries during the years 1903 to 

 1909. During the progress of this survey so much'bryozoan material was obtained 

 that it has seemed advisable to prepare a special paper dealing with this group. As the 

 Bryozoa of our coast have never received the careful study given to most of the other 

 marine animals, the desirability of making such a study, if even for a limited region, is 

 evident. 



The first mention of any American Bryozoa is found in the "Fauna Groenlandica " 

 of Fabricius (1780). D'Orbigny (1839) described and listed certain southern species 

 in his "Voyage dans 1'Amerique meridionale." On the northern coast of New England 

 and Canada much more attention has been given this group than elsewhere in America. 

 Here Stimpson made the first attempt since the time of Fabricius, and in his list of the 

 invertebrata of Grand Manan in the Bay of Fundy (1853) he recorded 16 species. Eleven 

 of these he described as new, but subsequent studies have reduced all but four to the 

 synonymy. Dawson's and Packard's papers soon followed, dealing, respectively, with the 

 invertebrate faunas of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Labrador coast. A majority of 

 Verrill's papers which make mention of Bryozoa deal with the occurrence of the species 

 north of Cape Cod. Various papers by Hincks treat of the St. Lawrence species, and in 

 1901 Whiteaves prepared a complete list of those known from eastern Canada. 



South of the New England region the Bryozoa have received but scant attention. 

 With the exception of Smitt's excellent treatise on the "Floridan Bryozoa," and a brief 

 preliminary account of the species in the vicinity of the Carnegie Laboratory for Marine 



a The general report of this survey, prepared by Dr. F. B. Sumner, Dr. Leon J. Cole, and the present writer, in zoology, 

 and by Dr. Bradley M. Davis, in botany, has been completed and is in course of publication by the Bureau of Fisheries. 



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