PHORONIDA 



By JOEL W. Hedgpeth, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California 



There seems to be no record of adult phoronids 

 in the Gulf of Mexico, hence it is not possible to 

 identify the species represented by the actinotroch 

 larvae which occur during the winter months in 

 the neritic waters of the Gulf of Mexico. These 

 larvae have been seen in plankton tows in Louisi- 

 ana bays and have at times been common in tows 

 taken from the dock in the ship channel at Port 

 Aransas. Some larvae have been carried through 

 metamorphosis to the juvenile phoronid stage, 

 but this is still too immature to identify them 

 even to genus. While it would not be surprising 

 to find that the same species known to occur in 

 the Beaufort area also occurs on the Gulf coast, 

 this is not adequate for assigning a name to the 

 actinotroch larva of the Gulf coast. The Beaufort 

 species, together with additional larvae, is de- 



scribed by Brooks and Cowles (1905). Recently, 

 Marcus (1949) has described the morphology and 

 embryology of a form in Santos, Brazil, which 

 she identifies with the north European Phoronis 

 ovalis. This species is reported to live in burrows 

 in shells of Thais floridana. While phoronids 

 have not been observed in this situation on the 

 Gulf coast, this Brazilian record suggests an 

 intensive search might be profitable. 



LITERATURE CITED 



Brooks, W. K., and Cowles, R. P. 



1905. Phoronis arrhilecla. Mem. Nat. ■\cad. 10: 76- 

 148, pis. 1-17. 

 Marcus, E. duB-R. 



1949. Phoronis ovalis from Brazil. Bol. Fac. Fil., 

 Cienc. Letr. Univ. Sao Paulo 99 (Zool. 14): 157-172, 

 pi. 1-3. 



367 



