236 ALLAN HANCOCK PACIFIC EXPEDITIONS VOL.21 



cave. Specimens from Entrada Point, outside Magdalena Bay, and from 

 north of South Bluff, Guadalupe Island, were collected on surf grass 

 {Phyllospadix) . 



Depth: Intertidal to 3 fathoms. 



Size and sex: Males in the present series range from 4.0 mm to 17.3 

 mm, females from 4.6 mm to 10.7 mm, the latter specimen bearing ova. 



Breeding: Ovigerous females were obtained at Santa Catalina Island 

 in August and at Cedros Island, Mexico, in October. 



Remarks: This distinctive species has not been taken at Laguna 

 Beach since its discovery by Professor Hilton, and may well have been 

 exterminated locally by encroaching civilization. The La Jolla specimen, 

 a gift of R. J. Menzies, furnished the first clue to its habitat, and sub- 

 sequent examination of beds of eel grass (Zostera) or of surf grass 

 (Phyllospadix) yielded several times as many specimens as were available 

 to Rath bun in 1925. 



In March of 1949 the writer collected a number of small kelp crabs, 

 believed at the time to be Epialtus minimus, on surf grass from tidepools 

 on the exposed side of Entrada Point, at the north entrance to Magdalena 

 Bay, which marks the southern limit of range of Phyllospadix. It was 

 not until some time afterward that these were identified as Epialtoides 

 hiltoni, thereby extending the known range of that species hundreds of 

 miles south of either Laguna or La Jolla, California. In December, 

 1949, under almost identical circumstances, the collecting of E. hiltoni 

 was repeated at Guadalupe Island, and in May, 1950, at Middle San 

 Benito Island, both off the Lower California coast. 



The twenty-eight specimens examined are remarkable for the char- 

 acters which are given above as diagnostic, characters which in other 

 species of Epialtus, sensu lato, notably E. minimus, are subject to con- 

 siderable variation (see Crane, 1937, pi. 2, fig. 7). The shape of the 

 rostrum, described as oblong although length and width are equal by 

 measurement, is unvarying and the bilobation is clearly indicated. In all 

 adults the branchial width exceeds the hepatic, and in all the lobe on the 

 anterior margin is well developed. One might almost say that uniformity 

 is a characteristic of Epialtoides hiltoni, whereas variety is a characteristic 

 of Epialtus minimus. 



The identification of specimens from southern California by Rathbun 

 (1894, p. 67; 1904, p. 173) with the Atlantic species, Epialtus bituber- 

 culatus Milne Edwards, unfortunately perpetuated by Weymouth 

 (1910), Nininger (1918), and Schmitt (1921), was only partially 

 rectified by its withdrawal and description as an independent species, E. 



