PART 1 garth: pacific oxyrhyncha 133 



In another 20 per cent the bottom was predominantly mud, with sand 

 frequently present. The final 20 per cent is divided equally between 

 coralline and coral bottom, the latter divided again between dead nulli- 

 pores and living Pocillopora. Crane (1937) records bottoms ranging 

 from muddy or shelly to sandy or rocky with weed. 



Depth : Shore to 60 fathoms ; exceptionally, as at Gorda Banks, to 78 

 fathoms. 



Size and sex: In view of the small size of the Hancock Galapagos 

 specimens previously reported (Garth, 1946, p. 367), it is gratifying to 

 find that mainland, and particularly Gulf of California, stations yielded 

 some of the largest, if not the largest, specimens of Stenorynchus debilis 

 on record. At least half a dozen individuals were noted which exceeded 

 the 27 mm males and 28 mm females recorded by Crane (1937, p. 50) 

 from among a series of 54 individuals from the Gulf of California. The 

 measurements of the male given above exceed those of the type specimen, 

 a 29.5 mm male, as well as those of a 34.6 mm male measured by Rath- 

 bun (1925, p. 19). The Hancock series includes young as small as 4 

 mm in size, some of the smallest having been cracked from Pocillopora 

 coral. 



Breeding: Females with eggs were found which measured as little 

 as 15 mm in length, although this is to be regarded as exceptional, 20 

 mm being the customary minimum. February and March were the 

 months in which ovigerous females were encountered, both in the Gulf 

 of California and in the Bay of Panama, with an earlier January date in 

 the Revilla Gigedo Islands and in Colombia. This reflects the dates of 

 visitation by the Velero III, however, rather than the probable later 

 dates of maximum egg bearing. 



Remarks: In following the historical treatment accorded the species, 

 we find that Bell, rather than Milne Edwards and Lucas, was the first 

 to record Stenorynchus from the Pacific coast, specimens having been 

 obtained by Hugh Cuming at Valparaiso circa 1829. Authors subsequent 

 to Bell continued to refer Pacific specimens to the Atlantic species under 

 the name of Leptopodia sagittaria Leach (1815a) [or Cancer Sagittarius 

 Fabricius (1793), unaware that Cancer seticornis Herbst (1788) had 

 priority] . Even after the appearance of the description of Pacific material 

 as Leptopodia debilis Smith (1871), A. Milne Edwards continued to 

 regard Atlantic and Pacific material as conspecific, going so far as to 

 propose the name Leptopodia sagittaria var. modesta (1878) for the 

 form found at Valparaiso. 



