284 ALLAN HANCOCK PACIFIC EXPEDITIONS VOL. 10 



Eudistylia vancouveri (Kinberg) 

 Plate 25, Fig. 63 



Sabella vancouveri Kinberg, 1867, p. 383. 



E. gigantea and E. plumosa Bush, 1904, pp. 210-212. 



Hartman, 1942, p. 84. 



Several very large individuals were seen in the muddy sand flats at 

 Tomales Bay, and one completely removed by T. L. Rodgers ; the tube of 

 this individual is shown in pi. 25, fig. 63. It is tough, leathery, chitinized, 

 long and cylindrical, and tapers basally, ending in a cone that is closed at 

 the base. Tubes are solitaiy, and, so far as could be observed, widely 

 scattered. Specimens are large, robust, well over 30 cm long, and the 

 crown, when fully extended, is strikingly plumose, brilliantly banded 

 with maroon and orange or yellow pigments. Tentacular eyespots are 

 black, more or less conspicuous, but often lacking from a few or many 

 radioles. The latter are usually entire, but rarely one or more are bifur- 

 cated near the base (as typical of species of Schizobranchia Bush). The 

 dorsal edge of the tentacular base is a short, entire membrane. The collar 

 is long, deep on its ventral side, but much shorter going upward ; the 

 dorsal lobes are rather low, widely separated from the lateral portions by 

 deep clefts. 



Two individuals, taken at Tomales Point on the ocean side, differ 

 rather strikingly from typical E. vancouveri in their pigmentation pattern. 

 One was removed, complete with tube, from rotten granite by John 

 Copeland ; another fragment was taken in a similar habitat by Dorothy 

 E. Peters. In each of these the body in life was deep olive green overlaid 

 with some red ; preserved they are greenish tinged with brown. The 

 tentacular crown has a spiraled base and rather short radioles, crossed 

 with at most 5 or 6 maroon bars and alternating pale ones. Radioles are 

 simple, may have 5 or 6 circular dark eyespots, irregularly disposed, 

 sometimes all on one side (toward the dorsum) near the middle of tITe 

 radiole, or some are also ventral, but many radioles lack eyespots. The 

 dorsal edge of the tentacular base is nearly straight, but there is a slight 

 elevation near its distal portion. Ventrally the tentacular base is rolled in, 

 spiraled. 



The dorsal collar lobes are low, oblique, leave much of the peristomial 

 base exposed, and are widely separated by dorsolateral clefts from the 

 lateral lobes. The latter arise, on either side, as a broad, well-rounded 

 membrane, dorsal to the first setal fascicle, extend obliquely forward 

 toward the ventral side, and terminate in a pair of elongate, auricular 

 lobes, about as in typical E. vancouveri. The tube is thick, tough, chitin- 

 ized, irregularly twisted. Except for differences in color, it seems impos- 

 sible to separate these 2 individuals from E. vancouveri. 



I 



