ANTHOZOA: THE ANEMONES 



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



There is as yet no systematic study of the 

 anemones of the entire Gulf of Mexico incUidinf; 

 the Tortugas region. The papers of McMurrich, 

 especially 1889, and Watzl (1922) on Bahamas 

 actinians, together with Duerden's (1902) report 

 on Porto Rican species, are useful aids to the 

 study of the Tortugas anemone fauna which 

 apparently is about the same as that of the 

 Bahamas. For the Gulf of Mexico proper there 

 is only the rpcent paper by Carlgren and Hedgpeth 

 (1952) on species from Texas and Louisiana. The 



collections reported in this work indicate a mixture 

 of tropical, West Indian forms and species of the 

 Midille Atlantic coast. Of particular interest 

 is the finding of Aiptasiomorphia luciae at Port 

 Aransas, adding yet another locality for that 

 ubiquitous species. The accompanying table, 

 (table 1), compiled principalh- from the literature, 

 indicates the affinities of the common species 

 found at Bahamas and Tortugas. This is sup- 

 plemented by brief notes on some of the more 

 interesting forms. 



Table 1. — Synopsis and known distribution of anemones in Bahamas, Tortugas, and the Gulf of Mexico 

 ICompiled from the literature; synonymy (in parentheses), after Carlgren, 1949] 



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