28 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA 



Remarks on the Crustacea of the Pacific Coast, with de- 

 scriptions of some New Species. 



BY W, N. LOCKINGTON. 



Notwithstanding the small number of sheltered bays and coves to be found 

 along the shores of the Pacific Ocean, south of Vancouver's Island, the 

 Crustacea appear to be tolerably abundant, since the total number of species 

 of the two highest orders, (the stalk-eyed and sessile-eyed) known or de- 

 scribed up to this date, is about two hundred and twenty, and there is every 

 reason to believe that a more searching investigation would at least double 

 that number. 



Neither Dana nor Stimpson did much work at the Crustacea south of San 

 Francisco, and the species lately described by Smith are almost entirely from 

 Panama. Between Panama and San Francisco lies a vast extent of coast, 

 extending through nearly twenty-nine degrees of latitude, and embracing a 

 region greatly diversified in climate and productions, so that although many 

 San Franciscan species extend southward a considerable distance, and many 

 Panama species may range along Central America, it is but reasonable to 

 suppose that many undescribed forms have their limits between those 

 extremes. 



The reasonableness of this expectation will be rendered the more apparent 

 by a glance at a map showing the ocean temperature. That portion of the 

 ocean bathing the shores of California at San Francisco, belongs to the sub- 

 temperate oceanic zone included between the isothermal lines of 50© Faht. and 

 560 i owest coldi but the heat of the Qcean increases rapidly as we trayel gouth _ 



ward, so that the coast from Monterey to San Diego, and for some distance 

 south of the latter place, lies between the isothermal line of 56Q extreme cold 

 and that of 620. The greater part of Lower California, with the Gulf is in- 

 cluded within the line of 620 extreme cold and that of 680, and may be'called 

 warm temperate. From Cape St. Lucas to about the latitude of Acapulco is 

 the sub-torrid zone, the isothermal line of 74Q degrees lowest cold bounding 

 it toward the south, and forming the northern limit of the torrid oceanic zone 

 which extends to, or near to, Guayaquil, in the State of Ecuador. 



Since Panama is situated close to the oceanic heat equator, it will be seen 

 that in the 290 f latitude between San Francisco and that place there is a 

 variation of about 3CP i u the lowest temperature of the ocean, a difference 

 which must and does imply a corresponding variation in the animal life in- 

 habiting the ocean. 



It was, therefore, with great pleasure that I received, since our last meeting, 

 a small but choice collection of Crustacea, collected at Monterey and San 

 Diego, by Mr. Henry Hemphill, and my pleasure was still greater when I 

 found, upon comparison with the specimens already in our museum, and 

 with the writings of Stimpson and S. I. Smith, that this donation enriched 

 us with at least 20 species new to science. 



Up to this present time no species of Crustacea from Panama, and only 

 one or two from the coast intervening between that point and San Diego, 



