POLYCHAETOUS ANNELIDS FROM 

 CALIFORNIA 



by Olga Hartman 



ABSTRACT 



The POLYCHAETOUS ANNELIDS of California are named 

 with 650 species in 283 genera, 5 subgenera and 56 families. Twenty- 

 four new species or subspecies, three new genera, two new names and 

 eight new combinations are given. In all 549 species or 84%, are 

 believed to have their known geographic distribution limited to California 

 or the northeastern Pacific Ocean, and about 101 others, of more 

 cosmopolitan character, are known also from other oceans. 



Introduction 



The diversity of the polychaetes of California can be partly expressed 

 in terms of diversity of that state's topographic features. It has a coastline 

 of more than 1300 miles, including nearly 300 miles of offshore islands 

 which are mainly in southern California. This coastline extends chiefly 

 north to south, through nearly 10 degrees of latitude, from 42° north (in 

 the latitude of Massachusetts) to 32.5° north (in the latitude of South 

 Carolina). The largest enclosed embayment is Sari Francisco Bay, more 

 than 40 miles long; its salinities vary from marine to nearly freshwater. 

 Lesser embayments include Humboldt, Bodega and Tomales Bays north 

 of San Francisco, and Mission and San Diego Bays south of Los Angeles. 

 The main rivers emptying their loads into the sea, and tidal at their 

 mouths for varying distances inland, are the Noyo, Navarro, Eel and 

 Russian Rivers north of San Francisco, the Sacramento River into San 

 Francisco Bay, the Salinas River into Monterey Bay, the Santa Maria 

 River into San Luis Obispo Bay, the Santa Ynez River north of Point 

 Arguello, and numerous smaller rivers in more southern latitudes, which 

 attain important proportions during rainy seasons. The sediments at the 

 mouths of these streams may be expected to support flourishing popula- 

 tions of polychaetes; they are still largely unexplored. In addition there 

 are many outfall lines, draining from the more densely populated parts 

 of central and southern California ; they add not only large amounts of 

 water of low salinity, but other materials such as nutrients, terrigenous 

 sediments and toxins of various kinds, all of which may be expected to 



[1] 



