PART 1 GARTH : PACIFIC OXYRHYNCHA 5 



neotypcs except when required for stability or for the solution of a 

 nomenclatorial problem. 



Although their types are no longer extant, the classic descriptions of 

 Bell, Dana, Stimpson, and A. Milne Edwards, together with those of 

 H. Milne Edwards, Miers, Faxon, and S. I. Smith, whose types escaped 

 destruction, are still available, although found in books and journals 

 which are becoming increasingly rare and difficult to obtain. Because of 

 their excellence, as well as their historic interest, a number of these early 

 descriptions have been incorporated in the account which follows, modi- 

 fied only to the slight extent needed to bring their often antiquated termi- 

 nology into conformity with present day usage and into harmony with 

 the original portions of the text. 



Unfamiliar with the North Atlantic fauna and without access to the 

 large collections of the east coast or of Europe, the west coast worker 

 has labored under a distinct handicap. For the westward course of civili- 

 zation and of science decreed that European species should become known 

 before eastern American, and they in turn before western American. 

 In many cases a Pacific species is described only in those minor particu- 

 lars in which it differs from a related and earlier described Atlantic 

 form. Such dependent or satellite descriptions have here been recast in 

 such a way as to attribute to the Pacific species, independently of the 

 Atlantic one, those characters shared in common. The Pacific worker, 

 therefore, may proceed with confidence, knowing that he will not be 

 required to consult either descriptions or specimens to which he does 

 not have ready access for the identification of his material. 



Acknowledgment 



To Captain Allan Hancock, donor and first director of the Foun- 

 dation and master of the two Veleros, is tendered grateful acknowledg- 

 ment for accommodations and facilities provided both in the field and in 

 the laboratory, and for unflagging interest in the contents of each new 

 dredge haul or shore bucket. To Dr. Waldo L. Schmitt, head curator 

 of zoology, U. S. National Museum, and Fred C. Ziesenhenne, chief 

 officer of the Velero IV, as co-laborers on far-flung collecting grounds, 

 are tendered heartfelt thanks for often strenuous effort. To Drs. Fenner 

 A. Chace, Jr., Elisabeth Deichmann, Jocelyn Crane, Isabella M. Gordon, 

 Jacques Forest, and L. B. Holthuis, as fellow curators of carcinological 

 collections at the U. S. National Museum, the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology, the New York Zoological Society, the British Museum 

 (Natural History), the Museum of Natural History of France, and 



