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REVISION OF THE NEMERTEAN FAUNA OF THE 



PACIFIC COASTS OF NORTH, CENTRAL, AND 



NORTHERN SOUTH AMERICA 



(Plates 24-31) 



W. R. COE 



Osborn Zoological Laboratory, Yale University, and Scripps Institution of 

 Oceanography, University of California* 



In preparation of this report the collection of nemerteans obtained by 

 the Allan Hancock Expeditions during the cruises of 1933-1939 on the 

 coasts of Mexico, Central America, Ecuador, and Peru has been supple- 

 mented by an extensive series obtained by the writer and others during a 

 number of years on the coast of California and northward. 



The writer welcomes this opportunity of revising the nomenclature in 

 conformity with modern usage as well as of supplementing the descrip- 

 tions of a number of species which were not included in the 1905 mono- 

 graph or which more recent studies have shown to have been inadequately 

 treated in that publication. Moreover, the known geographical distri- 

 bution of most of the species has been greatly extended by the more 

 recent investigations, and the types of habitat have been found to be more 

 variable for certain species than the earlier accounts would indicate. 

 Opportunity is also offered for the illustration of a number of species of 

 which no figures have been published previously. 



The monograph on the ribbon worms of the west and northwest 

 coasts of North America (Coe, 1905) contained descriptions of 85 sup- 

 posedly valid species, but more extensive collections in the intervening 

 years have included younger stages, intergrading individuals, and color 

 variations, which prove that 7 of these are specifically identical with other 

 species found on the Pacific coast or in other parts of the world. During 

 these years, 4 new species have been described from these regions, and 

 7 species already known from European or American shores bordering 

 the Atlantic Ocean have been added to the Pacific coast fauna. 



The present report includes descriptions of one new genus, Amphi- 

 nemertes, and five additional new species, Euborlasia hancocki, E. nigro- 



* Contributions from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, New Series, 

 No. 85. 



[247] K^^^^^i 



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